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Library of the University
OF Alberta.

READINGS IN
EUROPEAN HISTORY

Volume II

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2016 with funding from
University of Alberta Libraries

https://archive.org/details/readingsineurope02robi_0

READINGS IN

I O I.Z

EUROPEAN HISTORY^

A collection of extracts f'om the sources chosen with
the purpose of illustrating the progress of
culture in Western Eui'ope shice
the German Invasions

JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON

Professor of History in Columbia University

Volume II

From the opening of the Protestant Revolt
TO the present day

GINN & COMPANY

boston • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON

JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON

510.3

^tlienKum

GINN & COMPANY • PRO-
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A.

PREFACE

In its spirit and arrangement this second volume is like
the first. Its contents, however, are drawn from resources
far more abundant than those which were available for the
earlier period. With the opening of the sixteenth century
the historical material expands in a most surprising manner.
Indeed, one is sometimes tempted to think that the mass
of sources of all kinds for the times of Luther, Charles V,
Francis I, and Henry VIII equals in bulk all that we have
for the history of the western world before their day. More-
over, men begin to write of their own age with a clearness
and cogency and a wealth of intimate detail which we miss
in what comes down to us from the earlier centuries. The
difficulty is no longer to find apt and varied illustrations of
the conditions and trend of events, but rather to avoid being
overwhelmed by those which press in from all sides. I have
not therefore had the heart to keep the chapters of this
volume within the modest bounds prescribed for those in
the first, for I found it much easier to bring to an end a
quotation from the Annals of Xanten than from the Memoirs
of Commines. But even if I have devoted forty pages to
“ Napoleon and Europe,” that is not excessive, although
there may be but ten on “Charles Martel and Pippin.”

I have been greatly aided in the search for appropriate
extracts by Dr. Charles A. Beard, Lecturer in History in

Preface

Columbia University, who has generously devoted many
hours to this aleatory task. I have also to thank him for
preparing several of the bibliographies. I have received sug-
gestions from the various collections of illustrative material
which have been published from time to time, especially the
Translations and Reprints issued from the University of
Pennsylvania ; the “ source books ” of Miss Kendall, Pro-
fessor Colby, and Dr. Lee; Correard’s Choix de Textes ; and,
above all. Schilling’s Qiiellenbuch. A number of the trans-
lations from the French and German I owe to my wife, who
has also given me her constant aid in the revision of the
manuscript and the reading of the proof.

J. H. R.

Columbia University, New York,

November 3, 1905.

CONTENTS AND LIST OF CITATIONS

VOLUME II

CHAPTER XXIII — EUROPE AT THE OPENING
OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

PAGE

I. The Expedition of Charles VIII into Italy

231. Attitude of the Italian states toward France .... 2

Memoires de Philippe de Commynes^ livre vii, cc. 3 and 5 ;
livre viii, c. 3 ; ed. Mandrot ; trans. with some inaccuracies,
in the Bohn Library

231a. Florence and the Medici 6

Ibid, livre vii, c. 6

231b. Savonarola 7

Ibid, livre viii, c. 3

II. Machiavelli on the Troubles in Italy

232. Machiavelli’s estimate of Ferdinand the Catholic . . 9

II Principe^ c. 21 ; ed. Burd ; trans. by Thomson (Clarendon
Press, 1897)

232a. Should a prince keep his promises 10

Ibid. c. 18

232b. Alexander VI and Caesar Borgia ii

Ibid, c, 7

232c. Machiavelli calls upon the Medici to expel the “bar-
barians” 13

Ibid. c. 26

III. The Chevalier Bayard and the Battle of Marignano

233. How Bayard chose the profession of arms 16

Histoire du gentil seigneur de Bayart compos'ee par le loyal
Serviteur. c. i; ed. by Roman, pp. 3-6 (Soc. de Phist. de
Fr., 1878)

233a. How Francis I succeeded Louis XII 17

Ibid- c. 58, pp. 366 sqq. ; c. 59, p. 371
vii

Contents and List of Citations

233b. The battle of Marignano ig

Ibid. c. 60, pp. 380 sqq.

IV. Spain at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century

234. Guicciardini’s report on Spain (1513) 24

Opere bicdite di Guicciardini (Florence, 1863), VI, 271 sqq.

CHAPTER XXIV — GERMANY BEFORE THE
PROTESTANT REVOLT

I. Germany in the Time of Maximilian I

235. A Venetian ambassador’s account of Germany in 1507 31

Relazioni degli ambasciatori Veneti ; ed. by Alberi, Series I,

Vol. VI, pp. 5, 6 sq., 9 sqq., 12, 24 sqq.

II. The Ship of Fools and The Praise of Folly

236. Extracts from Brant’s Ship of Fools 37

Sebastian Brands Narrenschiff, cantos 99 and 73 ; ed. by
Simrock

237. Extracts from Erasmus’ Praise of Folly 41

MfiPIAS ETKflMION : Stultitiae Landatio, Desiderii
Erasmi declamatio (London and Paris, 1777), cc. xl, xli,
liii, lix

III. The Letters of Obscure Men

238. Examples of the Letters of Obscure Men 47

Ulrichi Hutteni opcru7n suppletnentu77i, Epistolae Obscuro-
ru77i Viroru77t ; recensuit Bdcking, Leipzig, 1864. Pars
II, Nos. 26, 49; Pars. I, No. 35. Vol. I, pp. 226 sq., 263,
and 53. The letter given in the note is No. 9 of Part II

CHAPTER XXV— MARTIN LUTHER AND HIS
REVOLT AGAINST THE CHURCH

I. The Preaching of Indulgences

239. An official account of indulgences 54

Gerdes, hitroductio hi historiam evaiigelii seculo XVI
renovati, Vol. I, Supplement, pp. 90 sqq.

II. Luther’s Ninety-five Theses

240. Examples of Luther’s ninety-five theses 58

Deutsche Geschichte hii Zeitalter der Refor77iatio7t,

Vol. VI (Analecta), pp. 83 sqq. ; trans. in Wace and
Buchheim, Lrdher's P7'i77iary Works, pp. 6 sqq.

Contents and List of Citations ix

PAGE

III. Letter of Warning to Luther from one of Eras-

mus’ Friends

241. Letter of Capito to Luther 62

Luther's Briefwechsel ; ed. Enders, Vol. I, pp. 228 sqq.

IV. The Disputation at Leipzig (1519)

242. Eck’s report on the Disputation 64

Lutheri opera Latina varii argumenti (Erlangen, 1866), III,

476 sq. ; trans. in the Crozer Historical Leaflets, No. 4

V. Luther on “ Good Works ”

243. “ Good Works ” and Justification by Faith 66

“Von den guten Werken,” D. Martin Ltdher's Werke,
Weimar ed., Vol. VI, pp. 204-207

VI. Hutten’s Appeal to German Patriotism

244. Hutten’s dialogue, Fever the Second 69

Ulrich von Hutte^i's Schriften ; ed. Docking, IV, 139 sqq.

244a. Vadisctis, or the Romaic Trinity 70

Ibid. pp. 153 sqq.

245. Hutten’s appeal to the elector of Saxony 72

Ibid. Vol. I, pp. 393 sqq.

VII. Luther’s Address to the German Nobility

246. Luther asserts the right of the secular rulers to reform

the Church 74

Ltither's Werke, Weimar ed., Vol. VI, pp. 405-415 ; trans.
by Wace and Buchheim, Luther's Primary Works,
pp. 17 sqq.

246a. The expense to Germany of the cardinals 79

Ibid. pp. 416, 427

246b. Example of Luther’s vigorous German 80

Lemme, Die drei grossen Reformationsschriften Luther's
vomjahre 1^20 (2 ed. 1884), p. 82

VIII. Luther rejects most of the Seven Sacraments

247. Luther’s Babylonish Captivity of the Church . . . . 8i

“ De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae praeludium,” Luther's
Werke, Weimar ed., Vol. VI, pp. 508 and 512; trans.
Luther's Primary Works, pp. 141 sqq.

IX. The Edict of Worms (1521)

248. The Edict of the Diet of Worms . 83

German edition in Luther's Werke, ed. Walch, Vol. XV,
cols. 2264 sqq. ; Latin version in Gerdes, Historia
Reformationis, Vol. II, Appendix, pp. 34 sqq. See note
below, p. 88; trans. in the Crozer Historical Leaflets,

No. 3

Contents' and List of Citations

X. Erasmus’ Distrust of Luther

249. The prudent policy of Erasmus

Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami opera omnia (Leyden, 1703),
Vol. Ill, Pars I, col. 651

CHAPTER XXVI — THE COURSE OF THE
PROTESTANT REVOLT IN GERMANY

I. The Peasant War

250. The “ Twelve Articles ” of the peasants 94

Oechsle, Beitrdge zur Geschichte des Bauernkriegs
(Heilbronn, 1830), pp. 246 sqq.

251. Luther on the “ Twelve Articles ” 99

“ Verlegung der 12 Artikel nebst dessen Vermahnung beydes
an die Oberkeit und Bauerschaft,” L^lther''s Werke, ed.
Walch, XVI, cols. 84 sqq.

252. The revolt of the peasants and of the artisans . . . loi

Baumann, Qiiclle^i ztir Geschichte des Bauernkriegs aus
Rotenburg an der Tauber., pp. 593 sqq. In Bibliothek des
Litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, Vol. CXXXIX

253. Luther “ Against the Murdering and Robbing Bands of

the Peasants ” 106

Lidheds 'Werke, ed. Walch, Vol. XVI, cols. 91 sqq.

II. The Augsburg Confession (1530)

254. Extracts from the Augsburg Confession 108

Tschackert, Die U7iverd7iderte Augsb7irgische Ko7i-
fessio7i, Leipzig, 1901. (The best collection of the several
Latin and German Versions); trans. by Krauth in the
Book of Concord edited by Jacobs

III. The Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555)

255. Extracts from the Peace of Augsburg 113

Dumont, Corps universel diplo77iatique., Tome IV, pt. iv,
pp. 88 sqq. ; trans. from the Latin version in the Crozer
Historical Leaflets, No. 5

CHAPTER XXVII — THE PROTESTANT REVOLT
IN SWITZERLAND AND ENGLAND

I. Zwingli and the Reformation at Zurich

256. The first disputation at Zurich (1523) n8

Hiddrici Zwingli opera ; ed. by Schuler und Schulthess, I,

1 14 sqq., passi77i ; trans. by L. A. McLouth in Select
Works of Zwmgli ed. by S. M. Jackson, 1901

Contents and List of Citations

II. Calvin and his Work page

257. Extracts from Calvin’s address to Francis I . . . .123

“ Epistola nuncupatoria,” prefaced to the Institution in Cal-
vini opera, I, 10 sqq., passim ; trans. by Thomas Norton,

1634

258. Calvin on predestination 126

Christianae religionis Institutio, Lib. ii, c. i, 5, 7, and 8;

Lib. hi, c. xxi, 5, and c. xxiii, 2. Calvini opera, II ; trans.
by Thomas Norton

259. Protestant intolerance in Geneva before Calvin’s arrival 129

Calvini opera, XXI, 203

260. Calvin’s project for church government (January,

1537) 130

Ibid. X, Pars I, cols. 9 sq.

261. The duties of elders, or presbyters 133

“Projet d’ordonnances ecclesiastiques ” (1541), ibid. X,

Pars I, cols. 15 sqq.

262, Regulations for the villages about Geneva 134

“Ordonnances sur la police des eglises de la campagne,’’
ibid. X, Pars I, cols. 51 sqq.

III. The English Humanists : Colet and More

263. Erasmus meets More and young Henry VIII .... 135

Erasmus, Opera; ed. Le Clerc I, praef. ; trans. in Nichols,

The Epistles of Erasmus, I, 201

264. Erasmus describes himself 135

Ibid. Ep. 41, Nichols, op. cit. 206

265. More’s own account of his busy life 136

Letter to Giles accompanying the Utopia. Utopia; ed.

J. H. Lupton (Oxford, 1895), pp. 3 sq.

IV. Henry VIII, Wolsey, and Queen Catherine

266. A Venetian ambassador’s account of Henry VIII,

Queen Catherine, and Wolsey 137

Sebastian Giustiniani, Report of England made to the
Senate. Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, ijog-isig,
pp. 559 sqq.

267. Catherine’s protest against Henry’s conduct .... 139

Somers, Tracts, Third Collection (1751), I, 5

268. Wolsey’s appeal to Henry VIII (1529) 140

State Papers piiblished U7ider the Authority of his Majesty's
Cojumission (1830), I, 347 sq.

Contents and List of Citations

xii

PAGE

V. Henry VIII repudiates the Headship of the Pope

269. Extract from the first Act of Succession (1534) . . . 141

Statutes of the Realm, III, 471 ; also in Gee and Hardy,
Documents Illustrative of the English Church (1896),
pp. 238 sq.

270. The Act of Supremacy 141

Statutes of the Realm, III, 492 ; Gee and Hardy, 243 sq.

271. Execution of Fisher and More 142

Hall, Chronicle (London, 1809), p. 817

VI. Church Reforms of Henry VIII

272. An account of the destruction of the monasteries . . 144

Ellis, Original Letters Illustrative of English History,
Third Series, III, 33 sq.

VII. Protestantism established in England under
Edward VI

273. Act against “ such as shall unreverently speak against

the sacrament ” 146

Statutes of the Realm, IV, 2 ; Gee and Hardy, 323 sq.

274. Act for “putting away diverse books and images ” . . 147

Ibid. IV, no sq.

VIII. The Catholic Reaction under Queen Mary

275. A Venetian ambassador’s impressions of Mary . . . 149

“ Report of Giovanni Michele on his return from Eng-
land, 1557,” Ellis (as above. No. 272), Second Series, II,

236 sqq.

276. Mary’s directions for the execution of an heretical

bishop 151

Goldsmid, Collection of Documents Ilhistrative of the
Reigns of the Tudor and Stuart Sovereigns (1886) [an
ostentatious title, it may be observed, for so tiny a col-
lection], Pt. II, p. 16

CHAPTER XXVIII — THE CATHOLIC REFORMA-
TION: PHILIP II

I. The Decrees of the Council of Trent

277. Extracts from the Acts of the Council of Trent . . .156

Canones et decreta sacrosancti concilii Tridentini, Session
xiv, C. v; Session xv (near the beginning)

Co7ite7its and List of Citations xiii

PAGE

277a. The hierarchy and the seven sacraments 159

Ibid. Session xxiii, “de sacramento ordinis,” canones i, 4,
and 6 ; Session vii, “ de sacramento in genere,” canon i

277b. Bishops and priests should explain the sacraments . . 159

Ibid. Session xxiv, C. vii

277c. Prelates should live frugally 160

Ibid. Session xxv, “ de reformatione,” C. i

II. The Society of Jesus

278. The first papal bull approving the Jesuits (1540) . . 161

Literae apostolicae quihiis institutio . . . et varia privilegia
continentur societatis Jesu (Rome, 1578), pp. i sqq.

III. The Abdication of Charles V

279. Charles V’s address at Brussels (1555) 165

PONTUS Heuterus, Rerum Ausiriacar7im Libri XV. In
his Opera historica (1643), PP- 33^

IV. Philip II of Spain

280. A Venetian ambassador’s estimate of Philip II . . .168

Gachard, Relations des ambassadeurs Venetiens sur
Charles-Quhit et Philippe II (Bruxelles, 1855), pp.

122 sqq.

281. A letter of Philip II to his young daughters . . . .170

Gachard, Lettres de Philippe II h. ses filles (1884), No.
xiii, pp. 133 sqq. (Spanish original with French transla-
tion)

V. The Revolt of the Netherlands

282. A Venetian ambassador’s account of the Netherlands

(1557) . 171

Gachard (as above, No. 280), pp. 76 sqq.

283. Extracts from the “ placard ” of April, 1550 .... 173

Apologie de Guillaume de Nassati, Prince d’Orange, etc. ;
ed. Lacroix (Bruxelles, 1858), pp. 275 sqq.

284. Proclamation of 1580 outlawing William of Orange . . 174

Ibid. pp. 5 sqq.

285. The “ Apology ” of William the Silent (1581) . . . . 177

Ibid. pp. 51 sqq., 108 sq., 154 sq.

VI. The Wars of Religion in France

286. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew 180

De Thou, Histoire des chases arrivees de son temps (Paris,
1659), pp. 658 sqq.

xiv Contents and List of Citations

PAGE

287. Extracts from the Edict of Nantes 183

Dumont, Corps diplomatique^ V, 544 sqq.

VII. Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth

288. Melville’s impressions of Elizabeth in 1564 186

Sir James Melvil of Halhill, Memoirs (Glasgow,
1751), pp. 10 1 sqq. There is a better edition published by
the Bannatyne Club, 1827

289. The bishop of London on the dangers from Catholic

conspiracy (1572) . ' 187

Ellis, Original Letters (as above. No. 272), Second Series,

III, 23 sq.

VIII. The Latter Part of Elizabeth’s Reign

290. John Hawkins on the fight with the Armada .... 189

State Papers relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada ;
ed. Laughton (2d ed., 1895), h 35^

291. Elizabeth’s character and tastes 191

“ Certain observations concerning the Life and Raigne of
Elizabeth, Queen of England,” Ellis, Letters (as above.

No. 272), Second Series, III, 190 sqq.

CHAPTER XXIX — THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR

I. The Opening of the Thirty Years’ War

292. The activity of the Jesuits in Germany 200

Brief e tmd Akten zur Geschichte des 30 j. Krieges ; bearbeitet
V. M. Ritter (Munich, 1870-1877), I, 635. Given by
M. Schilling, QuellenHich zur Geschichte der Neuzeit
(2d ed., Berlin, 1890), pp. 103 sq.

293. The English historian Rushworth’s account of the

opening of the war 201

John Rushworth, Historical Collectio7is . . . beghniing

the sixteenth year of King James, anno zbi8 (London,
1659), I, 5 sqq.

294. Letter from Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, to James I . 203

Ellis, Original Letters (as above. No. 272), First Series,

III, 112

295. A Catholic song about the “ Winter King” .... 204

“ Lamentatio liber den Kdnig in Bohmen, von den Papisten
gemahlt”; given by Schilling, Quellenbuch (as above,

No. 292), p. 107

II. The Intervention of Gustavus Adolphus

296. The electors demand the dismissal of Wallenstein . . 205

Theatrum Europae'um (1646), II, 182 sq.

Contents a7id List of Citations

PAGE

297. Gustavus Adolphus’ farewell to Sweden (May, 1630) . . 207

Schilling, Qucllenbuch (as above, No. 292), 123 sq.

298. Gustavus Adolphus’ reply to the elector of Branden-

burg (July, 1630) 210

Helbig, Gustav Adolf ti. die Kurfiirsten von Brande^ilurg
(1854), p. 12. Given by Schilling, Qicellenbuch (as
above. No. 292), pp. 125 sq.

299. The destruction of Magdeburg 211

Otto von Guericke [Burgomaster of Magdeburg], Ge-
schichte de7- Belagerwig . . . Magdebtags (herausg. v.
Hoffmann, i860), pp. 82 sqq. Given by Schilling, Quel-
lenbuch (as above. No. 292), pp. 126 sqq.

III. The Treaty of Westphalia (1648)

300. Opening of the treaty of Osnabriick 213

Dumont, Corps diplomatique, VI, 469 sq.

301. Condemnation of the treaties of Westphalia by Inno-

cent X 214

Ibid. VI, 463 sq.

CHAPTER XXX — STRUGGLE IN ENGLAND
FOR CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

I. Differences between James I and the Commons

302. James I’s dislike for Presbyterians 218

“ The summe and substance of the conference ... at
Hampton Court ” ; reported by William Barlow, bishop
of Rochester ; given by Miss Kendall, Source Book of
English History, pp. 209 sqq.

303. James I’s speech on the divine right of kings . . . .219

Works of Jaynes I, pp. 529 and 537

II. The Petition of Right (1628)

304. The Petition of Right 221

Statutes of the Realm, V, 24 sq. ; Stubbs, Select Charters,
Appendix

305. Charles I justifies his policy (1629) 224

Gardiner, The Constitutional Documents of the Purita7i
Revohdion, ibsy-ibbo (2d ed.), pp. 97 sq.

306. Conditions in England in 1629 encouraging emigration

to America 225

Life and Letters of Joli7i Whithrop (1864), I, 309 sqq.

XVI

Conteiits and List of Citations

III. Personal Government of Charles I ; Religious
Parties

PAGE

307. Position of the Puritans (1602) 227

JosiAs Nichols, “ The Plea for the Innocent,” Hanbury,
Historical Memorials, I, 3

308. Judgment of God on those who break the Sabbath . . 228

Nehemiah Wallington, Historical Notices (1820), 1,

49 sq., II, 212

309. Charles I permits dancing, etc., on Sunday .... 228

“Declaration of Sports,” Gardiner, Constitutional Docu-
ments (as above, No. 305), pp. 99 sqq.

310. Puritan pamphlet attacking the king’s courts (1641) . 230

“ Letter from Hell. Rome, and the Inns of Court,” Har-
leian Miscellany, IV, 393 sq.

31 1. Aminadab Blower rejects the Prayer Book . .... 232

Ibid. IV, 177 sq.

IV. The Early Acts of the Long Parliament

312. Opposition of the Scotch to the church service intro-

duced by Charles I 234

The Earl of Str affords' s Letters a7id Despatches (1739), II,

1 1 7. Given by Miss Kendall, Source Book of English
History, p. 230

313. Summary of the work of the Long Parliament, 1641 . 234

Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson ; ed. Firth, I,

129 sq.

314. Extracts from the Grand Remonstrance 235

Gardiner, Coiistitutional Documents (as above. No. 305),

205 sqq., passim

V. The Civil War (1642-1645)

315. A Puritan’s account of the battle of Edgehill .... 240

Wallington (as above. No. 308), II, 152

316. The general desolation caused by the war 241

May, “ A Breviary of the History of the Parliament of

England,” in Select T racts relating to the Civil Wars in
England ; ed. Maseres, Pt. I, p. 59

VI. The Execution of Charles I (1649)

317. Death w'arrant of Charles I 242

Gardiner, Constitutional Documents (as above. No. 305),
p. 380

318. Charles I’s parting words to his daughter 242

Works of Charles I, I, 449 sqq.

•319. An account of the execution of Charles I 243

Ibid. I, 454 sqq.

Contents and List of Citations xvii

VII. The Commonwealth and Cromwell page

320. Act abolishing the office of king in England (1649) • 245

Gardiner, ConstUntional Documents, pp. 387 sqq.

321. How Cromwell broke up the remnant of the Long

Parliament 247

Sydney Papers ; ed. Blencowe (1825), p. 139

322. Clarendon’s estimate of Cromwell 248

Clarendon, History of the Rebellion (Oxford ed.), VI,

91 sqq.

323. Parties in England in 1659 251

“ The Interest of England stated” (1659), Select Tracts
(as above. No. 316), Pt. II, pp. 676 sqq.

VIII. The Restoration of the Stuarts : Charles II

324. A picture of Charles II 253

Burnet, History of my Own Time ; ed. Airy (Clarendon
Press, 1897), I, 166 sqq.

324a. England goes mad on the return of Charles II . . . 254

Ibid. I, 165 sq.

325. Savage vengeance taken upon the leaders of the late

rebellion 255

The Diary of Satnuel Pepys ; ed. Wheatley (9 vols., 1893),

I, 241 sqq.

326. The execution of the regicides 255

Memoirs of John Evelyn, Esq.; ed. Bray (5 vols., 1827),

I, 156

IX. Religious Questions under Charles II

327. The Act of Uniformity 256

Statutes of the Realm, V, 364 sqq.; Gee and Hardy,
Documents, 600 sqq.

328. Harsh act against the dissenters (1670) 258

Burnet (as above. No. 324), I, 489 sqq.

X. James II and the Revolution of 1688

329. James II seems about to restore Catholicism .... 259

The Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, ibjq-ibSq, written by
hmiself; ed. Cartwright (1875), pp. 348 sq. and 359

330. Roman Catholic services at Whitehall 260

Evelyn (as above. No. 326), December 29, 1686

331. The Declaration of Right 261

Gee and Hardy, Documents, 641 sqq.

xviii Contents and List of Citations

CHAPTER XXXI — THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE

UNDER LOUIS XIV

I. Richelieu and his Policy of strengthening the
Kingship

332. Richelieu’s account of the state of France in 1624 . . 268

Testament politique (Amsterdam, 1689), c. i

333. Edict of 1626 for the demolition of feudal castles in

France 270

ISAMBERT, Recueil general des anciennes lois franqaises,

XVI, 192 sp.

334. Letters patent establishing the French Academy . . .271

Ibid. 418 sq.

II. Kings “by the Grace of God ”

335. Extracts from Bossuet’s work on kingship 273

Bossuet, Politique tiree des propres paroles de VEcrihire
sahite, Liv. iii, art. ii, prop, i, ii, iii {passim)^ and iv;

Liv. iv, art. i, prop, i; Liv. v, art. iv, prop. i. CEuvres ;
ed. Lachat (1864), XXIII, 533 sqq., 558 sq., and 642 sqq.

III. Colbert and his Work

336. Colbert on the financial disorders in France .... 277

Colbert, “ Memoires siir les affaires de finances de France
pour servir ei i’histoire,” in Clement, Lettres, histructions
et memoires de Colbert, Vol. II, pt. i. 17 sqq.

337. Commercial policy of Colbert 279

Clement (as above, No. 336), Vol, II, pt. ii, 426 sqq.

IV. Ascendency of France in 1671

338. Sir William Temple’s account of France in 1671 . . 281

“ A Survey of the constitution and interests of the Empire,
Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Holland, France, and Flanders,
with their relation to England in the year 1671,” Works
of Sir William Temple (London, 1757), II, 222 sqq.

V. Louis XIV and his Court

339. How Louis and his court were entertained at Chan-

tilly 283

Lettres de Madame de Sevigne (April 26, 1671) ; ed. de
Sacy (1861 sqql), Vol. I, 414 sqq.

340. Saint-Simon’s portrait of Louis XIV 285

“ Parallele des trois premiers rois Bourbons” [written in
1746], Ecrits inedits de Saint-Simon publies par Fauglre,

I, 85 sqq.

Contents and List of Citations xix

PAGE

340a. Outrageous vanity of the king 286

Ibid. p. 84

VI. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)

341. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 287

IsAMBERT (as above, No. 333), XIX, 530 sqq.

342. Saint-Simon’s account of the revocation 291

Memoir es ; ed. le marquis de Saint-Simon (1829), XIII,

115 (under the year 1715) ; trans. by Bayle St. John,

III, 3 sq.

VII. Opening of the War of the Spanish Succession

343. How the War of the Spanish Succession came about . 293

Marquis de Torcy (Charles Baptiste Colbert), Memoires,
Michaud et Poujoulat, Nouvelle Collection de memoires,
XXXII, 550. Also in English translation

344. How Louis XIV proclaimed the duke of Anjou king

of Spain 295 -

Saint-Simon, Memoires (as above. No. 342), III, 38 sq.\

Vol. I, 183, of English translation

345. Attitude of England at the opening of the war . . . 296

Marquis de Torcy, Memoires (as above. No, 343),

552 sqq-

CHAPTER XXXII — RISE OF RUSSIA AND PRUSSIA
I. Ivan the Terrible

346. An Englishman’s impressions of Ivan the Terrible

(1567) 301

“ The Discovery of Muscovy,” reprinted from Hakluyt,
Principal Navigations, Voyages, arid Discoveries (Lon-
don, 1893), p. 143

II. Peter the Great

347. Bishop Burnet’s impressions of Peter the Great in

1698 303

Burnet, History of his Own Time (1734), II, 221 sq.

348. An Austrian’s account of Peter’s way of treating

rebels 305

Diary of an Austrian Secretary of Legation at the Court
of Czar Peter the Great, trans. from the original Latin by
Count MacDonnell (2 vols., London, 1862), II, 85 sqq.,

106 sq., and in. This exceedingly rare Diarium itineris
in Muscoviam was written by Johann Georg von Korb,
probably in 1700

349. How the tsar promoted Alexander Gordon 306

Alexander Gordon, The History of Peter the Great
(1755)) I, V sqq.

XX Contents and List of Citations

PAGE

350. General Gordon’s impressions of Peter the Great . . 308

Ibid. II, 266 sqq.

351. How Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg . . . 309

Ibid. I, 170 sq.

352. How Peter forced his people to wear Western dress . 310

Memoires du rlgne de Pierre le grand, par le B. Iwan
Nestesuranoi [Jean Rousset de Missy] (Amsterdam,
1728), Vol. II, pp. 254 sqq.

III. How the Turks were defeated before Vienna (1683)

353. How Sobieski defeated the Turks 312

TheatAi77i Europaeiwi, XII, 511 sqq. Given in Schilling,
Qiiellenbuch (as above. No. 292), 188 sqq.

IV. The Rise of Prussia

354. Cromwell presents his respects to the Great Elector . 315

Schilling, Qnellcnbnch (as above. No. 292), 181

355. Edict of the Great Elector welcoming the Huguenots . 316

Ibid. 193 sqq.

356. The pope protests against the assumption of the kingly

title by the elector of Brandenburg 318

Ibid. 208 sq.

357. French manners in Germany in the early eighteenth

century 319

“ Der deutsch-franzdsische Modengeist,” Schilling, Quel-
lenbuch, 207 sq.

V. Frederick the Great and his Father

358. Instructions of Frederick William I for the education

of his son 319

Schilling, Quellenbuch, 230 sqq.

359. A youthful letter of Frederick to his father . . . .321

Forster, Friedrich Wilhebn /., Vol. I, 362; Schilling,

241 sq.

359a. Frederick William’s reply 322

Ibid.

VI. Frederick the Great and the Seven Years’ War

360. Frederick’s address to his officers before Leuthen . . 323

CEuvres de Frederic le Gravid, XXVII, 283; Schil-
ling, 274

361. Letter of Frederick written August, 1762 324

CEuvres, XIX, 340 ; Schilling, 285 sq.

Contents and List of Citations xxi

PAGE

362. Frederick declares that he is growing old 325

Qiuvres, XIX, 353 ; Schilling, 286 sq.

VII. Frederick the Great’s Estimate of German Liter-
ature

363. Frederick declares that Germany has no great writers . 326

“De la litterature allemande” (1780), Schilling, 297 sqq.

VIII. The First Partition of Poland

364. Letter of Maria Theresa on the partition of Poland . 328

Arneth, Briefe der Katserin Maria Theresa an Hire
Kinder und Freunde^ 151

CHAPTER XXXIII — THE EXPANSION OF
ENGLAND

I. The English go Northeast in Search of Trade

365. The English set out toward Russia 331

“ The New Navigation and Discovery of the Kingdom of
Moscovy by the Northeast in the year 1553,” from Hak-
luyt’s Voyages (as above, No. 346), 9 sqq.

II. How the English got a Foothold in India

366. Letter of the Great Mogul to James I (1614) .... 333

The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to India; ed. Foster,

P- 557

367. A Frenchman’s account of the troubles between the

Dutch and English traders 334

East India Company's Records., VI, 206 sq.

III. Condition of India before the English Conquest

368. India under the later Moguls 336

Pinkerton, Ge^ieral Collection of the Best and most

Interesting Voyages and Travels, Vol. VIII, 60, 133,

135 sqq.

369. Aurangzeb forecasts the dissolution of the Mogul’s

empire 338

Elliot, History of India, VII, 562

IV. How England established her Control in India

370. The “ Black Hole ” of Calcutta 339

Orme, a History of the Transactions of the British Nation
in Indostan (London, 1778), Vol. II, sec. i, 74 sqq.

371. Clive’s account of his victory at Plassey 342

Malcolm, The Life of Robert Lord Clive, I, 264

xxii Contents and List of Citations

PAGE

372. Review of English progress in India (1757-1857) . . 343

Innes, Luckytow and Oude in the Mutiny (1895),
pp. I sqq.

V. The Jesuits in North America

373. How Marquette descended the Mississippi River in

1673 345

The Jesuit Relations, edited by Thwaites, LIX, 89 sqq.,
passim

VI. The Settlements in New England and Pennsylvania

374. The motives of the New England colonists .... 351

William Hubbard, A General History of New Eng-
land, Massachusetts Historical Collections, 2d series,

Vol. V, 41 sq.

375. How Penn received his grant from Charles II . . . 353

Passages fro7n the Life a7id Writings of William Penn;
ed. Cope, p. 234

VII. English Views of the Revolt of the American
Colonies

376. Pitt on the American colonists’ opposition to the taxa-

tion 354

A7iecdotes of tJie Life of the Right Honourable William
Pitt, Earl of Chatham (Dublin, 1792), II, 124 sq.

377. Letter of George HI on necessity of holding the

colonies • • • 355

The Corresponde7ice of George HI with Lord North, II,

252

CHAPTER XXXIV — THE EVE OF THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION

I. The Ancien Regime

378. Uncertainty and confusion of the Ancien Regime . . 360

Madame la baronne de Stael, Consider atio7is sur
les prbicipaux evene7nens de la Revolutio7i fran^aise
(1818), I, 129 sqq.

379. Protest of a French court against the lettres de cachet . 362

M'emoires sur La77^oigno7^ de Malesherbes, par Eugene de
Vignaux (1876), pp. 61, 69 sqq., 81 sqq.

380. The hunting preserves in France 365

Arthur Young, Travels in Era7ice durhtg the years
1787, 1788, 178c); ed. Betham-Edwards (Bohn Library),

316 sqq.

Contejits and List of Citations xxiii

II. Accession of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette page

381. Marie Antoinette reports to her mother that she is now

queen 366

Maria Theresa tind Maria Antoinette^ ihr Briefwechsel;
ed. Arneth (1866), 105 sqq.

382. Maria Theresa warns her daughter of the dangers of

dissipation 368

Ibid. 174 sq.

382a. Maria Theresa urges an alliance between France and

Austria 369

Ibid. 201 sqq.

III. The French intervene in the American Revolution

383. How France became interested in the American Revo-

lution 371

Memoires du comte de Segur ; ed. Barriere (1859), Vol. I,

68 sqq.

IV. The People of France

384. Extracts from Arthur Young’s Travels 373

Arthur Young (as above, No. 380), 102 sqq., 60 sq., 123,

125, 193, 197 sq.

385. Jefferson finds less misery in France than he had

expected 379

Works of Thomas Jeff ersoyi ; ed. Ford, II, 135 sq.

V. Voltaire and Rousseau

386. Voltaire on the relations of church and state .... 380

Dictionnaire philosophiqne portatif ■ — in its original

brief form — szib verb. “ Loix civiles et ecclesiastiques ”

387. Voltaire on “ Grace ” 381

Ibid, sub verb. “ Grace ”

388. Rousseau’s summons to turn back to nature .... 383

Emile, ou de Veducation, par J. J. Rousseau, Citoyen de
Geneve (1780), Liv. i, opening

389. Rousseau’s deistic religion 384

Contrat social, Liv. iv, c. 8 ; trans. by Rose Harrington
(Putnams)

VI. Turgot and Necker

390. Turgot’s letter to Louis XVI on assuming office . . . 386

QSuvres de Turgot ; ed. Daire, 1844, II, 165 sqq.; trans. by
W. W. Stephens, The Life and Works of Ttirgot (1895),

85 sqq.

xxiv Contents arid List of Citations

PAGE

391. Preamble to Turgot’s edict abolishing the guilds. . . 389

Ibid. 302 sqq.

392. Necker reviews his own administration 390

Necker, De P ad^ninistratioti des finances de la France
(Introduction)

393. Necker on the sway of public opinion in France . . . 392

Ibid.

CHAPTER XXXV— THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

I. The Cahiers of 1789

394. Cahier of the third estate of Carcassonne 397

Archives parleme7itaires, II, 532 sqq.

II. The Opening of the Estates General in 1789

395. The opening of the Estates General 400

Madame de Campan, Memoires sur la vie de Marie-
Antomette ; ed Barriere (1855), 227 sqq.

396. Arthur Young visits the National Assembly .... 402

Arthur Young (as above, No. 380), 152 sq., 155 sq..,
163 sqq.

III. The Decree abolishing the Feudal System (August,

1789)

397. Decree abolishing the feudal system 405

Buchez et Roux, Histoire parle^nentaire, II, 259 sqq.

IV. Declaration of the Rights of Man

398. Declaration of the Rights of Man 409

Ibid. XI, 404 sqq.

V. Mirabeau’s Fears after the “ October Days ”

399. Mirabeau’s advice to the king in October, 1789 . . .412

Correspondance entre Mirabeau et le comte de la March,
I, 364 sqq.

VI. Address of the National Assembly to the French

People (February, 1790)

400. The Assembly reviews its great work 417

Histoire parlementaire (as above. No. 397), IV, 329 sqq.

VII. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy

401. The civil constitution of the clergy (July, 1790) . . . 423

Proces-verhal de P Assemblee 7iationale (in 75 vols.), No. 346.
Also in Sloane, The French Revolution U7id Religious
Refor77i, Appendix, 295 sqq.

Contents and List of Citations

XXV

CHAPTER XXXVI — THE FIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC

I. The Flight of the King and the Origin of a Repub-
lican Party page

402. How the Parisians viewed the flight of the king . . . 428

Prudhomme, “ Revolutions de Paris,” No. CII, Histoire
parlementaire^ X, 241 sqq.

403. Marat attacks Lafayette and the royalists 431

Chevremont, /mw-Prtz// Marat^ I, 490 sqq.

404. The Declaration of Pillnitz 432

Martens, Reateil des principaux traites, V, 260

II. A Royalist’s View of the Achievements of the
National Assembly

405. Opinion of a royalist on the work of the Assembly . 433

Le Merciire de Fr-ance (October, 1791), quoted in Me-
moires et Corrcspondance de Mallet du Pan ; ed. Sayous,

I, 240 sqq.

III. Origin of the Jacobin Club

406. How the Jacobin Club originated in 1789 436

Alexandre de Lameth, U Histoire de I'Assemblee con-
stituante, I, 422

IV. The Legislative Assembly and the Enemies of the

Revolution

407. Letter of Louis XVI to the king of Prussia .... 438

Louis XVI, Marie- Antoinette et Madame Elizabeth, lettres
et documents inedits, publies par Feuillet de Conches,

IV, 269 sqq.

408. Count of Provence summoned back to France . . . 439

Histoire par lenient air e, XII, 231 sqq.

409. The French Assembly declares war on Austria . . . 440

Duvergier, Collection compute des lois, decrets, etc. (ed.
of 1824), IV, 140 sq.

410. Decree against the nonjuring priests 441

Ibid. IV, 209 sq.

V. The Abolition of Monarchy

41 1. The proclamation of the duke of Brunswick .... 443

Histoire parlementaire, XVI, 276 sqq.

412. The debate during the first session of the Convention . 446

Ibid. XIX, 9 sqq.

413. Proclamation of the Convention to the nations (Decem-

ber, 1792) 449

Duvergier (as above. No. 409), V, 105 sq.

XXVI

Contents and List of Citations

PAGE

414. Announcement of the death of Louis XVI to the

Emigres 450

Lc Mojiiteur (February 26, 1793)

VI. The Ideals of the Terrorists

415. Selections from the Republican Institutions of Saint-

fust 452

CEuvres de Sabit-Just (1834), pp. 361 sqq., 391 sq., 395 sqq.,

406 sqq.

VII. Camille Desmoulins and his Newspaper

416. Desmoulins seeks to extenuate the Reign of Terror . 455

“ Le Vieux Cordelier,” No. Ill (opening), CEiivres de Camille
Des?fioulins (1872), III, 3 sqq.

417. Desmoulins pleads for clemency 458

Ibid. No. IV (opening), III, 27 sqq.

CHAPTER XXXVII — NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

I. The Boyhood of Napoleon

418. How Napoleon and Joseph learned French .... 465

Jung, Bonaparte et son Temps.1 lydg-iygg, I, 70 sq.

419. Napoleon’s early insight into character 466

Ibid. pp. 97 sqq.

II. Bonaparte’s Italian Campaign

420. Circumstances under which Bonaparte undertook the

campaign 468

Count de las Cases, Mhnorial de Sainte-Hellne, Jour-
nal of the Private Life arid Co?iversations of Emperor
Napoleon (New York, 1823), I, 108 sqq.

421. Bonaparte’s proclamation to his soldiers ...... 471

Correspo7idance de Napoleon /, I, 187 sq.

422. How Bonaparte signed the Treaty of Campo-Formio . 473

Bourrienne, Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte (Boston),

I, 1 17 sqq.

III. The Egyptian Expedition ; the i8th Brumaire

423. Bonaparte’s proclamation to his Egyptian army (Sep-

tember, 1798) 474

Correspondance, V, i

424. Bonaparte informs the Mohammedans that he is their

friend 475

Origmal Journals of the Eighteen Campaigns of the
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (London), II, 20 sq.

Contents arid List of Citations xxvii

PAGE

425. Bonaparte’s attitude toward his Egyptian adventure . 477

Madame de Remusat, Memoirs (English trans.), 99 sq.

426. Bonaparte’s own account of Brumaire 478

Corresp07idance, VI, 5 sq.

IV. Marengo and Luneville

427. The campaign of Marengo 480

Bourrienne, Metnoirs, II, i sqq., passim

428. Chief articles of the Treaty of Luneville 483

Meyer, Corpus juris confoederatiotiis Germaiiicae (2d ed.),

I, 2 sqq.

V. Personal Characteristics of General Bonaparte

429. Bonaparte’s manners when First Consul 486

Madame de Remusat, Mhjtoires, 48 sq., note
429a. How Bonaparte made others uncomfortable .... 487
Ibid. 70 sq.

429b. How Bonaparte won the hearts of his soldiers . . . 488

Ibid. 86 sq.

CHAPTER XXXVIII — EUROPE AND NAPOLEON

I. General Bonaparte becomes Emperor : his Early
Reforms

430. Why the French people submitted to Bonaparte’s rule . 490

Madame de Remusat, Mhnoircs, 160 sq.

431. Napoleon’s account of the internal condition of France

in 1804 491

“Expose de la situation de I’empire, 10 Nivose, an XIII,”
Archives parleme^itaires, 2d series, VIII, pt. i, 398 sqq.

II. Boulogne and Austerlitz

432. Impatience of the French soldiers to invade England . 494

Wairy Louis Constant, Recollections of the Private
Life of Napoleon; trans. by Walter Clark (1902), I,

250 sqq.

433. Napoleon’s proclamation to his soldiers after Auster-

litz 496

Annual Register (1805), 665 sq.

III. Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire

434. Napoleon announces the formation of the Confedera-

tion of the Rhine 499

Meyer, Corptis juris co7ifocderationis Germanicae (2d
ed.), I, 101 sq.

xxviii Contents arid List of Citations

PAGE

435. Abdication of the last Roman emperor 501

Ibid. I, 107

IV. The Continental Blockade

436. The Berlin Decree 503

Correspondance de Napoleon I, XIII, 551 sqq,

437. The Milan Decree 506

Corresponda7ice, XVI, 192 sq.

438. A contemporary criticism of Napoleon’s policy . . . 507

Pasquier, History of my Own Time, I, 313 sqq.

V. Napoleon at the Zenith

439. Extracts from the imperial catechism 509

Larousse, Dictionnaire universelle, sub verb. “ Catechisme
de I’empire fran^ais ”

440. Napoleon’s proclamation to the Spaniards 510

Correspondance, XVIII, 103 sq.

441. Decrees abolishing the feudal dues in Spain . . . .512

Ibid. No. 14,526, Vol. XVIII

442. Decree abolishing the Inquisition 512

Ibid. No. 14,527

442a. Decree abolishing monastic orders 512

Ibid. No. 14,528

443. Decree abolishing the interior customs lines .... 512

Ibid. No. 14,529

444. Decree “reuniting” the papal states td France . . . 513

Ibid. No. 15,219, Vol. XIX

445. Napoleon’s view of his destiny 514

Declaration to representatives of Holland (August 18, 1810),
Archives par lementaires. Second Series, Vol. XI

VI. The Russian Campaign

446. Napoleon’s proclamation at the opening of the Russian

campaign .514

Correspondance, XXVIII, 528 sq.

447. The crossing of the Beresina 515

Constant (as above. No. 432), III, in sqq., passim

VII. The German War of Liberation

448. Napoleon’s conduct after Jena 518

Pasquier (as above. No. 438), I, 311 sq.

449. The Prussian reform edict of October, 1807 .... 520

Gesetz-Sammlung fur konigUchen preussischen Staaten,
’8ob-r8ro, Anhang, 170 sqq.

Contents and List of Citations xxix

PAGE

450. The king of Prussia '•’■An mein Volk" 522

Schilling, Quelle7ibuch (as above, No. 292), pp. 377 sq.

451. Stein’s account of the battle of Leipzig 524

Pertz, Das Leben des Ministers Freiherrti vo'm Stem, III,

433; Schilling, 390 sq.

VIII. The Downfall of Napoleon

452. Treaty of Fontainebleau 525

Correspondance, XXVII, 361

453. Declaration of the allies (March 13, 1815) 526

British and Foreign State Papers, II, 665

454. Napoleon’s exile on St. Helena 527

Las Cases (as above. No. 420), I, 52 sq., 61 sq., 170 sq.

CHAPTER XXXIX — EUROPE AFTER THE CON-
GRESS OF VIENNA

I. The Congress of Vienna

455. Talleyrand’s discouragement on starting for the con-

gress 533

Pasquier, History of my Own Time, Memoirs, III, 73 sq.

456. Talleyrand describes his success ^34

Correspondence of Prince Talleyrand and King Louis
XVIII during the Congress of Vienna, 240 sqq.

II. France after the Restoration

457. Difficult position of Louis XVIII 536

Pasquier (as above. No. 455), III, i sqq.

458. Extracts from the French Charter of 1814 538

Tripier, Constitutions qui ont regi la France, 229 sqq,

459. Louis Philippe summoned to the throne 542

Duvergier (as above, No. 409), XXX, 166 sqq.

III. Germany and the Reaction after 1814

460. The German Act of Confederation (1815) 543

Meyer (as above. No. 434), II, 3 sqq.

461. Chief provisions of the Carlsbad Resolutions (1819) . 547

Ibid. II, 138 sqq.

462. Verses celebrating the Zollverein 550

Schilling, Quellenbuch (as above. No. 292), 420 sq.

XXX

Contents a?zd List of Citations

IV. Metternich’s Fight against Liberalism page

463. Circular note of Troppau (1820) 552

Martens, Nouveau Recueil de trades^ V, 592 sqq.

464. Proclamation of Greek independence (1822) .... 555

British and Foreign State Papers (in a French transla-
tion), IX, 629 sqq.

465. Reasons for the creation of Belgium 557

Ibid. XVII, 1238 sq.

CHAPTER XL — UNIFICATION OF GERMANY
AND ITALY

I. Revolution of 1848 in France; Napoleon III

466. The overthrow of the Orleanist dynasty 559

Duvergier (as above, No. 409), XLVIII, 49 sqq.

467. Decrees relating to workingmen 560

Ibid. pp. 58 sqq.

468. Proclamation of the second French republic .... 561 j

Ibid. p. 60

469. Louis Napoleon explains his position (November, 1848) 562

Maupas, The Story of the Coup d'Etat; trans. by
Vandam, I, 30 sqq.

470. Napoleon’s Bordeaux address (October, 1852) . . . 563

Le Moniteur universel (October 12, 1852)

II. The Revolution of 1848 in Germany and Italy

471. Metternich informs the Tsar of the Vienna revolution . 564

Aus Metternich' s nachgelassenen Papieren., VII, 605

472. Vienna retaken by Windischgratz (October, 1848) . . 566

Annual Register (1848), 422 sqq.

473. Signs of revolt in Venetia (January, 1848) 567

British and Foreign State Papers, XXXVII, 835 sq.

474. Marshal Radetzky encourages his soldiers (January 18,

1848) 568

Ibid. 834 sq.

475. Milan appeals to the king of Sardinia (March, 1848) . 569

Ibid. 959

476. Abdication of Charles Albert (March, 1849) .... 569

Annuaire historique ufiiversel (1849), Appendix, p. 208

477. Message of the Diet to the Frankfort Assembly (May,

1848) 570

Schilling, Quellenbuch, 424

Contents a7td List of Citatiojis

XXXI

PAGE

478. The king of Prussia refuses the imperial crown (May,

1849) 571

Ibid, 431

III. Establishment of the Kingdom of Italy

479. Napoleon III justifies his intervention in Italy (May,

1859) 572

Le Moniteur imiversel (May 4, 1859)

480. Victor Emmanuel reviews the events of 1859-1860 . . 574

Annuaire historique (i860), Appendix, pp. 148 sq.

481. Garibaldi’s description of the Sicilian expedition . . .575

Autobiography of Giuseppe Garibaldi (authorized transla-
tion by A. Werner, 1889), II, 144 sqq., 225, 240 sq.

482. Victor Emmanuel’s address at the opening of the

Italian parliament (February, 1861) 577

Annual Register (1861), Section, “ History,” pp. 186 sq.

483. Pius IX’s attitude toward the unification of Italy . . 579

Ibid. 187

484. The Italian ministry’s hope of winning both Venice

and Rome 579

Ibid. 190 sq.

IV. The Austro-Prussian War and the Founding of the

North German Confederation

485. King William addresses his people (June, 1866) . . . 580

Schilling, Quellenbuch, 458 sq.

486. Bismarck describes the battle of Koniggratz .... 582

Ibid. p. 459

487. How Bismarck held victorious Prussia in check . . . 584

Bismarck the Man and the Statesman (translated under
the supervision of A. J. Butler), II, 48 sqq.

488. The three forces provided for in the German consti-

tution 5^6

Speech of Sybel, in Bezold, Materialien der deutscheti
Reichsver fas sung (1873), I; 5^°

V. The Franco-Prussian War

489. How Bismarck cut down the Ems telegram .... 589

Bismarck (as above. No. 487), II, 100 sq.

490. Bismarck describes the surrender of Napoleon HI at

Sedan 59^

Schilling, Quellenbuch., p. 480

491. Downfall of the second empire 592

Ibid. p. 483

492. Proclamation of the German empire at Versailles

(January, 1871) *594

Ibid. pp. 484 sq.

xxxii Contents and List of Citations

CHAPTER XLI — EUROPE OF TO-DAY

I. Development of Natural Science

493. Contrast between mediaeval and modern science . . .

Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences from the
Earliest to the Present Time, Bk. IV, Introd., and c. i

494. Francis Bacon proclaims the principles of scientific

advance

Works of Francis Bacon; ed. Spedding (Boston, 1863),
Vol. VIII, Organon, Bk. I, cc. xvi, xviii, xix, Ixxxix,
xc, xcvii

495. How Darwin’s work was received

Andrew D. White, A History of the Warfare of Science
and Theology in Christe^idom, I, 70 sqq.

496. The scientific advance in the eighteenth century . . .

Taine, Ancient Regime, 171 sqq.

II. Applied Science

497. Efficiency of modern industrial methods

Adapted from Charles A. Beard, The hidustrial Revo-
lutio7i (London, 1902), 39 sqq. See also First Annual
Report of the Co^n^nissioner of Labor (Washington, 1886),
P- 83

498. Improvements in methods of transportation ....

Wells, Econo^nic Changes (1899), 37 sqq.

499. Effects of improved methods of transportation . . .

The United States of America ; ed. N. S. Shaler, II, 65 sqq.

500. The beneficent bacteria

Dr. William Osler, in The Progress of the Century
(1901), 184 sq.

501. Modern surgery

Dr. W. W. Keen, Ibid. 230 sq.

III. Political and Social Democracy

502. The chief political issues in western Europe during

the nineteenth century

Adapted from Seignobos, A Political History of Etirope
since 1814; ed. MaeVane, 836 sqq.

503. The socialist programme issued at Gotha (1875) . . .

ScHONBERG, Ha7idbucJt der politischen Oeko7iomie (3d ed.),
I, 131 sq.

504. Extract from the Erfurt programme (1891) ....

R. T. Ely, Socialism (1894), 357 sq.

IV. Imperialism

505. Present extent of European colonies

Adapted from J. A. Hobson, Imperialism (1902), 2.0 sq.

page

599

601

605

606

608

610

61 1

613

614
i

615

617

619

620

READINGS IN

EUROPEAN HISTORY

CHAPTER XXIII

EUROPE AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

I. The Expedition of Charles VIII into Italy

There could be no more charming introduction to
the history of the sixteenth century than the famous
memoirs of Philip of Commines. The French, in mod-
ern times, have been distinguished for the skill with
which they combine their personal reminiscences with
a more or less complete account of the history of their
own times, in the form of memoirs, which both delight
the casual reader and serve the purposes of the serious
historian. Of this attractive but too often unreliable
kind of history Commines affords a very early and
admirable example. Born in Flanders not later than
1447, the writer first attached himself to the court of
Charles the Bold and served him as councilor and ambas-
sador. In 1472, however, he went over to Charles’
arch-enemy, Louis XI of France, of whom he has much
to say.^ Six or seven years after the death of Louis,
Commines wrote the first six books of his memoirs,

1 For Commines’ estimate of both Charles the Bold and Louis XI,
see above, Vol. I, pp. 477 s^. and 481
I

The Me-
moires of
Philip of
Commines.

Readings in European History

How Ludo-
vico il Moro
sought aid of
Charles VIII
of France.

231. Atti-
tude of the
Italian
states
toward
France.

relating to that king’s reign (1464-1483). Under
Charles VIII, Commines had ample opportunity, as
ambassador to Venice, to observe the manner in which
France, Spain, and Germany were beginning to meddle
in Italian affairs. Just after Charles’ death he added
two books to his memoirs, dealing especially with the
years 1494 to 1498 and the expedition into Italy.

No one can fail to see in Commines’ account, given
below, of the attitude of the various Italian states
(Milan, Venice, and Florence) toward the intervention
of France, that keen insight and sense of humor,
combined with a certain youthful freshness and sim-
plicity, which have commended his memoirs for well-
nigh four centuries to readers of all European nations.^

An invitation to Charles VIII to try his fortune in
Italy came from Milan, where Ludovico, of the house
of Sforza, was endeavoring to exclude his nephew, Gian
Galeazzo, the rightful heir to the duchy of Milan, from
his inheritance. The chief difficulty in Ludovico’s way
was not Gian himself, but his spirited wife, a Neapolitan
princess, who might call in her relatives to support the
rights of her inefficient husband.

None of the subjects or relations of Gian Galeazzo, duke
of Milan, gave the lord Ludovico the least disturbance in
his designs upon the duchy except Duke Gian’s wife, who
was a young lady, and a wise daughter to Alphonso, duke

1 The Memoires were translated into English in the seventeenth cen-
tury. A modern and pretty accurate translation based upon a good text
is published in the Bohn Library. An admirable edition of the original
French, reproduced from a recently discovered manuscript more com-
plete than any hitherto known, has just been published by Mandrot in
the Collection de textes pour servir a I'eUide et h P enseigne7?ient de Vhis-
toire, 2 vols., 1901-1903; with an excellent introduction on Commines
and his work at the opening of Vol. II.

Europe at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century 3

of Calabria (whom I mentioned above), eldest son to Fer-
rante, king of Naples. In the year 1493 the lord Ludovico
began to solicit King Charles VIII, then reigning in France,
to undertake an expedition into Italy, to conquer the kingdom
of Naples, and to supplant and exterminate those who pos-
sessed it ; for whilst they were in force and authority Ludo-
vico durst not attempt what he did afterwards ; for at that
time Ferrante, king of Naples, and Alphonso, his son, were
both very rich, of great experience in war, and had the
reputation of being very valiant princes, though it afterwards
appeared otherwise.^

This Ludovico was a wise man, but very timorous and
humble where he was in awe of any one, and false and
deceitful when it was for his advantage ; and this I do not
speak by hearsay, but as one that knew him well, and had
many transactions with him. But to proceed : In the year
1493 he began to tickle King Charles, who was but twenty-
two years of age, with the vanities and glories of Italy,
demonstrating (as is reported) the right which he had to
the fine kingdom of Naples, which he knew well enough
how to blazon and display. . . .

[Now since the heart of our king, though he was very
young, was strangely bent upon this enterprise,] he requested
the Venetians to give him their assistance and counsel in his
expedition, and they returned this answer ; That he should
be very welcome in Italy, but that they were wholly incapa-
ble of assisting him, upon account of their continual appre-
hensions of the Turk — though at that time they were at
peace with him. As for undertaking to advise so wise a
king, who had so grave a council, that would savor too much
of presumption on their part ; nevertheless they would rather
assist than disturb him in his designs.

How Charles
VIII entered
into nego-
tiations with
the wily
Venetians.

1 Ferrante was king of Naples only, not of Sicily, which belonged to
Ferdinand the Catholic, as part of the possessions of the rulers of Aragon.
See History of Western Europe, p.360, note (Vol. II, p.8, note). Ferrante
died just before Charles started on his Italian expedition. He was
succeeded by his brutal son, Alphonso, duke of Calabria, who however
abdicated in a panic of fear upon the approach of Charles and his army.

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The Vene-
tians’ grudge
against the
house of
Aragon (i.e.
of Naples).

Now this they believed a very discreet answer, and truly
so it was ; and I am of opinion that their affairs are man-
aged with more prudence and discretion at this day than
the affairs of any other prince or state in the world ; — but
God will still have us know that the wisdom and policy of
man is of no avail where he pleases to interpose, for he
ordered the affair quite otherwise than they were anticipating.

The Venetians did not imagine that the king would come
in person, and (whatever they pretended) they had no appre-
hension of the Turk; for the Turk [Bajazet II] who then
reigned was a man of no courage or activity. But their
design was to be revenged upon the house of Aragon, both
father and son,^ for whom they had a mortal hatred, because
(as they said) it was at their instigation that the Turk fell
upon them at Scutari. I mean the father of this present
Turk, called Mahomet Ottoman, who conquered Constan-
tinople, and did abundance of mischief besides to the
Venetians. They had several other complaints also against
Alphonso, duke of Calabria, and, among the rest, they said
that he had been the occasion of the war which the duke
of Ferrara had made upon them, which was very expensive,
and had liked to have proved their ruin. They complained
also that he had sent a man to Venice, expressly to poison
their cisterns, at least such as he could come at ; for some
were kept under lock and key. In that city they use no
other water, for they are wholly surrounded by the sea ; but
that water is very good, and I drank of it eight months
together during my first embassy thither (for I have been
there once since).

These were not, however, the chief grounds of the Vene-
tian animosity toward the house of Aragon ; the real reason
was, that the father and son had restrained them, and kept
them from extending their conquests in both Italy and
Greece — for their eyes were turned in both directions, and,
moreover, without any title or excuse, they had lately sub-
dued the kingdom of Cyprus.

1 Namely, the above-mentioned Ferrante of Naples and his son «
Alphonso, who belonged to a branch of the reigning house of Aragon.

Europe at the Openmg of the Sixtee^ith Century 5

In view of all these grudges, the Venetians thought it
would be highly to their advantage if a war should be begun
between our king and the house of Aragon ; hoping it would
not be brought to a conclusion so soon as it was, and that
it would only weaken the power of their enemies and not
utterly destroy them ; and then, let happen what would, one
side or the other would give them towns in Apulia, which
borders upon their gulf, in order to have their assistance.
And even so it fell out, though they had liked to have been
mistaken in their reckoning. Besides, they thought that
nobody could accuse them of inviting our king into Italy,
since they had neither given him counsel nor assistance, as
appeared to the world by their answer above.

In the year 1493 the king advanced to Lyons, to examine
into his affairs ; but nobody ever imagined he would have
passed the mountains himself. . . .

[Nevertheless] the king, on the 23d of August, 1494,
set out from Vienne, and marched straight toward Asti. At
Susa, the lord Galeazzo di St. Severino came post to meet
his Majesty, who advanced from thence to Turin, where he
borrowed the jewels of Madame of Savoy, daughter to the
late William, marquis of Montferrat, and widow to Charles,
duke of Savoy. Having pawned them for twelve thousand
ducats, he removed a few days after to Casale, the residence
of the marchioness of Montferrat, a young and prudent lady,
and daughter to the king of Servia. The Turk having over-
run her country, the emperor, whose relative she was, took
care of her, and procured her a husband. She also lent the
king her jewels, and they also were pawned for twelve thou-
sand ducats ; by which you may see how unprosperous was
the beginning of this war, had not God himself conducted
the enterprise.

The king continued at Asti for some time. The wines
in Italy were sour this year, and therefore not at all agree-
able to the French, any more than the excessive heat of the
atmosphere. The lord Ludovico and his wife came with a
numerous retinue to wait on his Majesty ; they stayed there
two days, and then removed to a castle called Annone, about

Character-
istic attitude
of an Italian
state toward
a foreign
invader.

How the
king of
France
raised funds
on borrowed
jewels.

231a.

Florence and
the Medici.

The Medici.

6 Readings in European History

a league from Asti, belonging to the duchy of Milan, at which
place the king’s council resorted to him daily. . . .

Something must now be said of the Florentines, who sent
two embassies to the king of France before his setting out
upon this expedition ; but their design was only to dissemble
with him. . . . Our demands were only that they should
grant us passage for our troops, and furnish us an hundred
men at arms, to be paid by them after the Italian rate (which
is but ten thousand ducats a year).

The ambassadors replied according to the instructions
that were given them by Piero de’ Medici, a young man of
no extraordinary parts, son of Lorenzo de’ Medici, lately
deceased, who had been one of the wisest men of his time,
had governed the city almost as a prince, and left it to his
son. Their house had already existed two generations, dur-
ing the lives of Piero, the father of this Lorenzo, and of
Cosimo, who founded it, a man worthy to be reckoned
among the chief of that age. Indeed, in their profession,
which was merchandising, I think this family was the great-
est that ever was in the world ; for their agents had so much
reputation on account of this name of Medici that the effect
of it in England and Flanders, as I have myself seen, is scarce
credible.

I saw one of their agents, Gerard Canisiani, who kept
King Edward IV upon his throne, almost upon his own credit,
during the time of the great civil wars in that kingdom ; for
he furnished the king at different times with more than six-
score thousand crowns, — little to his master’s advantage,
though in the end he got his money back again. I knew also
another, named Thomas Portinari, who was security between
King Edward and Charles, duke of Burgundy, for fifty thou-
sand crowns, and at another time for eighty thousand. I
cannot commend merchants for acting thus ; but it' is highly
commendable in a prince to be punctual with them, and
keep his promise exactly ; for he knows not how soon he
may want their assistance, and certainly a little money some-
times does great service.

Europe at the Opening of the Sixteenth CentiLry y

This family of Medici seem already to be in a declining
condition — as happens in all kingdoms and governments
— for the authority of his predecessors has been hurtful to
Piero, though indeed Cosimo, the first of the family, was mild
and gentle in his administration, and behaved himself as he
ought in a free city.

Lorenzo, the father of that Piero of whom we are now
speaking, upon occasion of the difference, mentioned in a
former part of this book, betwixt him and the Pisans, in
which several of them were hanged, had a guard of twenty
soldiers assigned him, for the security of his person, by an
order from the city council, which at that time did whatever
he commanded. However, he governed very moderately ;
for, as I said before, he was a wise man.

His son Piero, on the contrary, thought that a guard was
his due, and, what is more, he employed it to the terror and
vexation of his people, committing great injuries and inso-
lences by night, and invading the common treasure. His
father had indeed done this before him; but he managed it
so prudently that the people were almost satisfied with his
proceedings. . . .

Contrast
between
Lorenzo the
Magnificent
and his son
Piero.

I had almost forgotten to mention that while I was
at Florence, on my way to join the king, I went to pay
a visit to a certain Dominican, named Friar Jerome, who,
by all reports, was a very holy man, and had lived in a
reformed convent fifteen years. There went along with me
one Jean Francois, a prudent person, and steward of the
king’s household. The occasion of my going to visit Friar
Jerome was that he had always preached much in our king’s
favor, and his words had served to keep the Florentines
from turning against us ; for never had any preacher enjoyed
so much authority in a city.

In spite of what has been said or written to the contrary,
he always affirmed that our king would come into Italy,
saying that he was sent by God to chastise the tyranny of
princes, and that none would be able to oppose him. He
foretold likewise that he would come to Pisa and enter it,

231b. The
memorable
preaching
of Friar
Jerome
Savona-
rola.

Readmgs in EiLropean History

and that the state of Florence would be dissolved on that
day. And so it fell out ; for Piero de’ Medici was driven
out that very day.

Many other things he presaged long before they came to
pass, as, for instance, the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici ; and
he openly declared that he knew it by revelation ; as like-
wise he predicted that the Church would be reformed by the
sword. This is not yet accomplished ; but it must be said
that it very nearly occurred, and he still maintains that it
will come to pass.

Many persons blamed him for pretending to receive divine
revelations, but others believed him ; for my part, I think
him a good man.

I asked him whether our king would return safe into
France, considering the great preparations that the Venetians
were making against him, of which he gave a better account
than I could, though I had lately come from Venice. He
told me he would meet with difficulties by the way, but that
he would overcome them all with honor, though he had
but a hundred men in his company ; for God, who had
conducted him thither, would securely guard him on his
way back again.

But because he had not applied himself as he ought to the
reformation of the Church, and because he had permitted his
soldiers to rob and plunder the poor people, — those who
had freely opened their gates to him as well as the enemy
who had opposed him, — therefore God had pronounced
judgment against him, and in a short time he would receive
chastisement.

However, he bade me tell the king that if he would have
compassion upon the people, and command his soldiers to
do them no wrong, and punish them when they did, as it was
his office to do, God would then mitigate, if not revoke, his
sentence ; but that it would not be sufficient for him to plead
that he did the people no wrong himself. And he declared
that he would meet the king when he came, and tell him so
from his own mouth ; and so he did, and pressed hard for
the restitution of the Florentine towns.

Europe at the Opening of the Sixtee^ith Century 9

II. Machiavelli’s Description of the Troubles in
Italy at the Opening of the Sixteenth
Century

Machiavelli’s little guide for despots, The Prince} was
written in 1513, at the opening of Leo X’s pontificate,
and contains many references to important events which
were still fresh in his mind. These contemporaneous
>events and the princes who took part in them are used
constantly as illustrations and warnings. Probably no
other book gives one so lively a notion as does The
Prince of the prevailing political spirit at the beginning
of the sixteenth century.^

Nothing makes a prince so well thought of as to under-
take great enterprises and give striking proofs of his ca-
pacity.

Among the princes of our time Ferdinand of Aragon, the
present king of Spain, may almost be accounted a new
prince, since from one of the weakest he has become, for
fame and glory, the foremost king in Christendom. And if
you consider his achievements, you will find them all great,
and some extraordinary.

In the beginning of his reign he made war on Granada,
which enterprise was the foundation of his power. At first
he carried on the war leisurely, without fear of interruption,
and kept the attention and thoughts of the barons of Castile
so completely occupied with it that they had no time to think
of changes at home. Meanwhile he insensibly acquired rep-
utation among them and authority over them. With the

1 The best edition of II Principe in the original Italian is that edited
with an admirable introduction and many notes by L. A. Burd ; pub-
lished, with an interesting preface by Lord Acton, by the Clarendon
Press, Oxford, 1891. The same press has issued a careful translation
by N. H. Thomson (2d ed., 1897), which I have here followed.

2 Extracts from The Prince describing the spirit and policy of the
Italian despots are given above, Vol. I, pp. 516 sqq.

Machiavelli’s

Prince.

232. Mach-
iavelli’s
estimate of
Ferdinand
of Aragon.

232a.

Whether it
is prudent
for a prince
to keep his
promises.

A prince
should not
keep his word
when to keep
it would
injure him.

lO Readings in European History

money of the Church and of his subjects he was able to
maintain his armies, and during the prolonged contest to lay
the foundations of that military discipline which afterwards
made him so famous.

Moreover, to enable him to engage in still greater under-
takings, always covering himself with the cloak of religion,
he had recourse to what may be called “ pious cruelty,” in
driving out and clearing his kingdom of the Moors ; than
which exploit none could be more wonderful or uncommon.
Using the same pretext, he made war on Africa, invaded
Italy, and finally attacked France ; and being thus con-
stantly busied in planning and executing vast designs, he
kept the minds of his subjects in suspense and admiration,
and occupied with the results of his actions, which arose
one out of another in such close succession as left neither
time nor opportunity to oppose them. . . .

Every one understands how praiseworthy it is in a prince
to keep faith, and to live uprightly and not craftily. Never-
theless we see, from what has taken place in our own days,
that princes who have set little store by their word, but have
known how to overreach men by their cunning, have accom-
plished great things, and in the end got the better of those
who trusted to honest dealing.

Be it known, then, that there are two ways of contend-
ing, — one in accordance with the laws, the other by force ;
the first of which is proper to men, the second to beasts.
But since the first method is often ineffectual, it becomes
necessary to resort to the second. A prince should, there-
fore, understand how to use well both the man and the
beast. . . . But inasmuch as a prince should know how to
use the beast’s nature wisely, he ought of beasts to choose
both the lion and the fox ; for the lion cannot guard himself
from the toils, nor the fox from wolves. He must'therefore
be a fox to discern toils, and a lion to drive off wolves.

To rely wholly on the lion is unwise ; and for this reason
a prudent prince neither can nor ought to keep his word
when to keep it is hurtful to him and the causes which led

Europe at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century 1 1

him to pledge it are removed. If all men were good, this
would not be good advice, but since they are dishonest and
do not keep faith with you, you in return need not keep faith
with them ; and no prince was ever at a loss for plausible
reasons to cloak a breach of faith. Of this numberless
recent instances could be given, and it might be shown how
many solemn treaties and engagements have been rendered
inoperative and idle through want of faith among princes,
and that he who has best known how to play the fox has
had the best success.

It is necessary, indeed, to put a good color on this nature,
and to be skilled in simulating and dissembling. But men
are so simple, and governed so absolutely by their present
needs, that he who wishes to deceive will never fail in find-
ing willing dupes. One recent example I will not omit.
Pope Alexander VI had no care or thought but how to
deceive, and always found material to work on. No man
ever had a more effective manner of asseverating, or made
promises with more solemn protestations, or observed them
less. And yet, because he understood this side of human
nature, his frauds always succeeded. . . .

In his efforts to aggrandize his son, the duke [Caesar
Borgia], Alexander VI had to face many difficulties, both
immediate and remote. In the first place, he saw no way to
make him ruler of any state which did not belong to the
Church. Yet, if he sought to take for him a state of the
Church, he knew that the duke of Milan and the Venetians
would withhold their consent, Faenza and Rimini^ being
already under the protection of the latter. Further, he saw
that the forces of Italy, and those more especially of which
he might have availed himself, were in the hands of men
who had reason to fear his aggrandizement, — that is, of the
Orsini, the Colonnesi,^ and their followers. These, there-
fore, he could not trust.

232b. Policy
of Pope
Alexander
VI and his
son, Caesar
Borgia.

^ Towns in Romagna, a province upon which Alexander VI had his
eyes as an appropriate field of conquest for his son.

2 Powerful families of Roman barons.

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The pope’s
selfish
reasons for
encouraging
Louis XII
to invade
Italy.

Louis XII

captures

Milan.

Csesar Bor-
gia’s methods
of ridding
himself of
his enemies.

How Caesar
Borgia ruled
his duchy of
Romagna.

It was consequently necessary that the existing order of
things should be changed, and the states of Italy thrown into
confusion, in order that he might safely make himself master
of some part of them ; and this became easy for him when
he found that the Venetians, moved by other causes, were
plotting to bring the French once more into Italy. This design
he accordingly did not oppose, but furthered by annulling the
first marriage of King Louis of France.^

King Louis therefore came into Italy at the instance of
the Venetians, and with the consent of Pope Alexander;
and no sooner was he in Milan than the pope got troops
from him to forward the papal schemes in Romagna, which
province, moved by the reputation of the French arms, at once
submitted. After thus obtaining possession of Romagna, and
after quelling the Colonnesi, Duke Valentine (i.e. Caesar Bor-
gia) was desirous of following up and extending his conquests.
Two causes, however, held him back ; namely, the doubtful
fidelity of his own forces and the waywardness of France. . . .

The duke, trusting no longer either to the French or to
any other foreign aid, that he might not have to confront
them openly, resorted to stratagem, and was so well able
to dissemble his designs that the Orsini . . . were drawn,
in their simplicity, into his hands at Sinigaglia.^ When the
leaders were thus disposed of and their followers made his
friends, the duke had laid sufficiently good foundations for
his future power, since he held all Romagna together with
the dukedom of Urbino, and had ingratiated himself with
the entire population of these states, who now began to see
that they were well off.

And since this part of his conduct merits both attention and
imitation, I shall not pass it over in silence. After the duke
had taken Romagna, finding that it had been ruled by feeble
lords, who thought more of plundering than of governing

1 Louis XII’s desire for a divorce was due to his eagerness to marry
the widow of Charles VIII, Anne of Brittany, who would bring to the
French crown the important fief of Brittany.

2 Here Caesar had his dangerous generals strangled in a most treach-

erous manner.

Europe at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century 1 3

their subjects, — which gave them more cause for division
than for union, so that the country was overrun with rob-
bery, tumult, and every kind of outrage, — he judged it
necessary, with a view to rendering it peaceful, and obedient
to his authority, to provide it with a good government.
Accordingly he set over it Messer Remiro d’ Oreo, a stern
and prompt ruler, who, being intrusted with the fullest
powers, in a very short time, and with much credit to him-
self, restored it to tranquillity and order. But afterwards
the duke, apprehending that such unlimited authority might
become odious, decided that it was no longer needed, and
established in the center of the province a civil tribunal,
with an excellent president, in which every town was repre-
sented by its advocate. And knowing that past severities
had generated ill feeling against himself, in order to purge
the minds of the people and gain their good will, he sought
to show them that any cruelty which had been done had not
originated with him, but in the harsh disposition of his min-
ister. Availing himself of the pretext which this afforded,
he one morning caused Remiro to be beheaded, and exposed
in the market place of Cesena with a block and bloody ax by
his side. The barbarity of this spectacle at once astounded
and satisfied the populace.

But Machiavelli hated the “barbarians,” — the French,
Germans, and Spaniards, — and in the last chapter of
his Prince he called upon the nephew of Leo X to free
Italy from the foreign invaders and, by putting in prac-
tice the principles of conduct previously described, to
establish a strong government and bring peace once
more to his distracted country.

Turning over in my mind all the matters which have been
considered above, and debating with myself whether in Italy
at the present hour the times are such as might serve to
confer honor on a new prince, and whether a fit opportunity
now offers for a prudent and valiant leader to bring about

Caesar’s
proof of his
gentle
disposition.

232c. Mach-
iavelli calls
upon the
house of
Medici to
drive out
the “ bar-
barians.”

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Italy op-
pressed by
foreign
powers.

Italy prays
for a
deliverer.

changes glorious for himself and beneficial to the whole
Italian people, it seems to me that so many conditions com-
bine to further such an enterprise, that I know of no time
so favorable to it as the present. And if, as I have said, it
was necessary in order to display the valor of Moses that
the children of Israel should be slaves in Egypt, and to
show the greatness and courage of Cyrus that the Persians
should be oppressed by the Mede.s, and to illustrate the
excellence of Theseus that the Athenians should be scat-
tered and divided, so at this hour, to prove the worth of
some Italian hero, it was required that Italy should be
brought to her present abject condition, be more a slave
than the Hebrew, more oppressed than the Persian, more
disunited than the Athenian, without a head, without order,
beaten, spoiled, torn in pieces, overrun, and abandoned to
destruction in every shape.

But though, heretofore, glimmerings may have been dis-
cerned in this man or that, whence it might be conjectured
that he was ordained by God for Italy’s redemption, neverthe-
less it has afterwards been seen in the further course of his
actions that Fortune has disowned him ; so that our coun-
try, left almost without life, still waits to know who it is that
is to heal her bruises, to put an end to the devastation and
plunder of Lombardy and to the exactions and imposts of
Naples and Tuscany, and to stanch those wounds of hers
which long neglect has changed into running sores.

We see how she prays God to send some one to rescue
her from these barbarous cruelties and oppressions. We see
too how ready and eager she is to follow any standard, were
there only some one to raise it. But at present we see no
one except in your illustrious house (preeminent by its vir-
tues and good fortune, and favored by God and by the
Church, whose headship it now holds) who could undertake
the part of a deliverer. But for you this will not be too hard
a task, if you keep before your eyes the lives and actions of
those whom I have named above. . . .

If then your illustrious house should seek to follow the ex-
ample of those great men who have delivered their country

Europe at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century i 5

in past ages, it is before all things necessary, as the true
foundation of every such attempt, to be provided with national
troops, since you can have no braver, truer, or more faithful
soldiers. And although every single man of them be good,
collectively they will be better, seeing themselves com-
manded by their own prince, and honored and esteemed by
him. That you may be able, therefore, to defend yourself
against the foreigner with Italian valor, the first step is to
provide yourself with an army such as this. . . .

This opportunity, then, for Italy at last to look on her
deliverer, ought not to be allowed to pass away. With what
love he would be received in all those provinces which have
suffered from the foreign inundation ; with what thirst for
vengeance, with what firm fidelity, with what devotion and
what tears, no words of mine can declare. What gates would
be closed against him ? What people would refuse him obe-
dience ? What jealousy would stand in his way ? What Ital-
ian but would yield him homage ? This barbarian tyranny
stinks in all nostrils.

III. The Good Chevalier Bayard. The Battle of
Marignano (1515)

In the dreary annals of the bloody and fruitless
wars carried on by the French kings, Charles VIII,
Louis XII, and Francis I, with the hope of gaining a
foothold in Italy, one brave warrior stands out whom
the French have rightly never ceased to love, — the
Chevalier Bayard, the knight “without fear and with-
out reproach.” We have a beautiful life of him, the
very title of which might make it immortal. The ve^y
Joyous^ Pleasing, and Diverting History of the Gentle
Lord of Bayard, written by the Loyal Servitor. We
are carried back to the knightly St. Louis and his
biographer, 1 only the Loyal Servitor, as he chose to

1 See above, Vol. I, pp. 2\z sq.

National
troops should
be substi-
tuted for the
mercenaries.

The life of
the Chevalier
Bayard by
the Loyal
Servitor.

Readings hi European History

sign himself, was probably no high-born noble, as was
Joinville, but a faithful squire and secretary. The life
of the chevalier opens as follows :

233. How
the Good
Chevalier
chose the
profession
of arms.

In the country of Dauphiny which is now held by the
king of France, — as it has been by his predecessors for
many years, ever since the dauphin Humbert, who was the
last of his race, gave it to them, — there are a number of
good and great families of nobles, from which so many
doughty and virtuous knights have gone forth that the fame
of them has spread abroad throughout all Christendom.
As scarlet surpasses all other colors, even so the chevaliers
of Dauphiny, without slight to the nobility of any other
region, are called by all those who know them the scarlet
among the gentlemen of France. Among these families is
that of Bayard, of ancient and noble extraction, as those
who have sprung from it have abundantly proved ; for at
the battle of Poitiers the great-great-grandfather of the
Good Chevalier without fear and without reproach died
at the feet of King John of France ; at Crecy his great-
grandfather perished ; at Montlhery his grandfather was
left on the field of battle with six mortal wounds, not count-
ing his other injuries ; and at Guinegate his father was so
sore wounded that he was never afterwards able to leave
his house, where he died at the age of eighty.

A few days before his death, seeing that his strength was
so failing him that he could not long remain in this mortal
life, he called to him his four children in the presence of
his wife, — a very pious lady, wholly devoted to God, the
sister of the bishop of Grenoble, of the family of Aleman.
His children being gathered about him he asked the eldest,
who was eighteen or twenty years old, what he wished to
be. The youth replied that he never wished to leave his
father’s house, which he would serve to the end of his days.
“Very well, George,” replied the father; “since you love
the house, you shall stay here and fight the bears.”

The second boy, who was the Good Chevalier without
fear and without reproach, was then asked what career he

Europe at the Opening of the Sixtee^ith Centmy 1 7

would follow. He was only thirteen or a little more, but alert
as a falcon ; and his sunny face beamed as he answered,
like a man of fifty : “ My father, the bond of paternal love
holds me so fast that I ought to forget everything else in
order to serve you at the close of your life ; nevertheless
the glorious tales which you have told me daily of the noble
men of the past, especially those of our own house, have
sunk deep into my heart, and I desire, if it please you, to
follow the calling of yourself and your ancestors, namely,
that of arms ; for it is that, in all the world, which I most
greatly desire ; and I trust, with God’s grace, not to bring
dishonor upon you.” Then the good old man replied with
tears : “ My child, God grant you his grace ! You already
resemble your grandfather in face and figure, and he in his
time was one of the most accomplished knights in Chris-
tendom. I will do everything I can to put you in the way
of accomplishing your desires.”

The Loyal Servitor thus describes the death of
Louis XII and the opening of Francis I’s earliest
Italian campaign, in which the Chevalier Bayard was
conspicuous :

The good king of France, Louis XII, after passing
through many adventures in the year 1513 [and losing all
hold on Milan, for which he had fought so hard], returned
to his city of Blois, where he hoped for some respite and
enjoyment ; but his pleasure was speedily turned to great
grief and sadness, for about the beginning of January his
good companion and spouse, Anne, queen of France and
duchess of Brittany, fell grievously ill, and, in spite of all
the doctors that her husband summoned to her aid, she
rendered up her soul to God in less than a week, which
was an unutterable loss to France and a cause of perpetual
mourning to all the people of Brittany. The good King
Louis was so sore afflicted by this grievous bereavement
that for a whole week he never ceased to weep, praying
that it might be the pleasure of our Lord that he should

233a. How
Louis XII
died and was
succeeded
by Francis I.

Readings m European History

Marriage of
Louis XII
with the
sister of
Henry VIII.

Accession of
Francis I

(1515).

rejoin his dear wife. His only remaining comfort was in
the two good and beautiful princesses whom his wife had
borne him, Claude and Renee, the latter about three years

old. . . .

Later in this same year, about the month of October,
through the mediation of Lord Longueville, who was then
a prisoner in England, a marriage was arranged between
King Louis and Mary, sister of the English king ; and the
lady was conducted to Abbeville, where our lord king mar-
ried her. He did not much need to be married, for many
reasons, nor did he greatly care to ; but as he saw himself
threatened with war on all hands and could not maintain
himself without burde-ning his people, like the pelican, he
sacrificed himself for his children. Eor when the queen
Mary [then sixteen years old] had made her entry into
Paris, with great magnificence ; and after many jousts and
tourneys, which lasted more than six weeks, were over, the
good king, to please his youpg wife, changed his whole
manner of life ; for where he had been wont to breakfast
at eight o’clock he had to take his dejeuner at noon, and
instead of going to bed at six o’clock in the evening he
often did not get to bed before midnight. So, toward the
end of December, he fell ill of a disease which defied all
human remedies, and he rendered up his soul to God on
the first of the following January after midnight.

He had been a good prince, wise and upright, who main-
tained peace among his subjects and had not burdened
them except when he was compelled to do so. He had
seen much good and much evil in his time, for he knew
the world well. He had won many victories over his ene-
mies, but at the end of his life fortune turned a rather sour
face upon him. . . .

After him Erancis, the first of that name, succeeded to
the crown at the age of twenty. He was as handsome a
prince as the world had ever seen, and had married Lady
Claude of France, the eldest daughter of the king, his pred-
ecessor, and of the duchess of Brittany. Never has there
been a king in France so beloved of the nobles. He was

EiLvope at the Opening of the Sixteenth Ceiitury 1 9

conducted to Rheims to be consecrated, accompanied by
so many princes, gentlemen, and officers that the number
of them was something almost incredible. . . .

While these things were taking place the king of France
was privily preparing for his expedition for the conquest of
his duchy of Milan, and gradually collected his army near
Lyons and in Dauphiny. The Good Chevalier was already
at that time the king’s lieutenant in that region, where he
was as beloved as if he were their natural lord. Now, as
you have already learned from sundry passages, the Good
Chevalier was always gladly at the front when the enemy was
attacked and in the rear when his men retreated. And so
it happened in this expedition, for he was sent with his com-
pany and three or four thousand foot soldiers to the borders
of Dauphiny and the territory of the marquis of Saluzzo, who
had lost all his possessions except a strong fortress called
Revello. In the marquis’ territory a great number of Swiss
were garrisoned, and Lord Prospero Colonna, the lieutenant
general of the pope, had taken up his residence there, exact-
ing tribute of the people and doing just as he liked. [The
French troops, however, made their way over a pass which
the Swiss had failed to guard, reenforced Bayard and his
men, and took Colonna prisoner.]

The king of France, who, was very joyful over the taking
of Lord Prospero, — and with good reason, — marched with
his army as fast as he could and came into Piedmont to
Turin, where the duke of Savoy, his uncle, received him
honorably. The Swiss, who had been guarding the passes,
when they heard of the taking of Lord Prospero and the
rout of his troops, abandoned their posts and retired toward
Milan, whither they were pursued.

Proposals for settling the difficulties between the Swiss and
the king of France were under consideration. . . . Negotia-
tions continued until a conclusion was reached, as the army
of the king was approaching within twelve or fifteen miles
of Milan, whither the Swiss had retreated with their good
prophet, the cardinal of Sion, who all his life had been a
mortal enemy of the French, as he was to show himself

Opening of
the Italian
campaign.

233b. The
Battle of
Marignano
(September

13-14, 1515I

Readings i7i European Histoiy

Bravery of
Francis.

this time.^ For though the lord of Lautrec had gone to
take the sum agreed upon ^ to the village of Galeazzo (near
Milan), the cardinal preached so eloquently to the Swiss
on a Thursday at evening, and recalled so many things
to their minds, that they rushed forth like wild men from
Milan and cast themselves upon the camp of the king
of France.

The constable Bourbon, who commanded the advance
guard, immediately brought his troops into order and noti-
fied the king, who was just sitting down to supper: he left
his supper and went straight against the enemy, who were
already engaging in skirmishes, which went on for some
time before the real fight began. The king of France had a
great number of pikemen who attempted, in a fit of fool-
hardiness, to cross a ditch in order to come at the Swiss,
who let seven or eight ranks advance and then threw them-
selves forward in such a way that those who had already
crossed the ditch were hurled back into it, and the pikemen
were thereby thrown into great consternation. If it had not
been for the lord of Guise, — who fought marvelously and
was left on the field for dead, — the duke of Bourbon, the
constable, the gentle count of St. Pol, the Good Chevalier,
and many others, who opposed themselves to this body of
Swiss, there would have been a great disaster, for it was
already night, and the night feels no shame.

But by evening the soldiers of the advance guard had
broken the ranks of the Swiss, some two thousand of whom
started to pass in front of the king, who recklessly charged
them. There was a sharp combat, in which the king’s per-
son was in great danger, for a great hole was made in his

^ The Swiss were wont to hire themselves out as mercenary soldiers,
and were in great repute on account of their bravery. Louis XII had
some years earlier refused to employ them on the terms they demanded,
and had alienated their leader, Matthew Schinner, bishop of Sion, by
declining to give him a pension. Francis I, after Marignano, made a
treaty with them which was observed until the opening of the French
Revolution.

2 The Swiss had been offered 700,000 crowns if they would return
to their country and leave Milan to the French.

Europe at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century 2 1

headpiece by a pike. But it was now so late in the day
that neither side could see the other, and both the Swiss
and the French were forced for that evening to retire. They
disposed themselves for the night as best they could, but I
do not think that any one was much at his ease. Every one
took what came to him, the king of France as well as the
least of his soldiers, for he remained all night on horseback
like the rest.

We must tell of one affair in which the Good Chevalier
without fear and without reproach found himself in a strange
and dangerous position. While the last charge was being
made upon the Swiss during the evening he mounted upon
a gallant courser, which was his second that day, for at the
first charge his horse had been killed under him. As he
would have pressed on he found himself entirely surrounded
by pikes, so that his horse lost its bridle. Finding itself
without rein, it took its own course, and in spite of the
Swiss passed quite through them, and would have carried
the Good Chevalier right into another troop of Swiss had
it not been that the way led through a vineyard, where the
vines were trained from tree to tree in such a way that they
stopped the horse.

The Good Chevalier was much frightened, and not with-
out good cause, for he was dead, and no mistake, if he fell
into the hands of the enemy. He did not, however, lose his
good sense, but gently dismounted and, throwing away his
headpiece and cuirass, he crawled along the ditches on all
fours, in the direction in which lay the camp of the French
and where he heard cries of “ France.” God in his grace
permitted him to get through without danger, and luckily
for him the first man that he came upon was the gentle duke
of Lorraine, one of his masters, who was much astonished
to see him so on foot.

So the said duke immediately provided him with a gallant
horse called Carman, which had been captured at the fall of
Bresse and presented to the duke by the Good Chevalier
himself. At the battle of Ravenna it had been left for dead,
for the Good Chevalier had dismounted when he found that

Adventure
of the Good
Chevalier.

The good

horse

Carman.

Readings in European History

Intrepidity of
the Swiss.

Francis I
knighted by
the Good
Chevalier.

his horse had two pike wounds in his flanks and more than
twenty sword cuts on his head.

Next day, however, some one happened to notice that the
horse was browsing and that it commenced to whinny ; so
the animal was brought back to the lodging of the Good
Chevalier, who had him cured; and it is a fact hardly to be
believed that the horse lay down like a person and let his
wounds be dressed without moving at all. And afterwards
when he got sight of a sword he would rush at it as if to
devour it. A braver horse was never seen — not even that
of Alexander, Bucephalus.

However this may be, the Good Chevalier was very joy-
ful to have escaped so great a danger and to be mounted
once more on so good a horse ; but he was troubled because
he had no headpiece, for in such affairs it was very dangerous
to have the head bare.

So he approached a nobleman, a very good friend of his,
whose page was carrying his helmet, and said to him ; “ I
am afraid of catching cold, for I am in a great sweat, having
been so long on foot. I pray you, lend me your helmet,
which your man is carrying, for an hour or so.” The noble,
not knowing what was in the mind of the Good Chevalier,
loaned him his helmet, which he was glad enough to have,
and kept until the battle was all over, and that was Friday
at ten or eleven o’clock.

At daybreak the Swiss recommenced the battle and
marched straight toward the French artillery, who gave
them a very warm reception indeed. Nevertheless no men
ever fought more bravely, and the affair lasted for three or
four hours, but at last they were routed and defeated, leaving
ten or twelve thousand of their number dead on the field.
The remainder retired in fairly good order along the highroad
to Milan. . . .

The evening of Friday, when the battle was finished to
the honor of the king of France, there was joy without
measure in the camp. There was much talk as to who
had shown themselves valorous above their fellows ; but
it was agreed by all that the Good Chevalier during both

Europe at the Opening of the Sixtee?ith Centtcry 23

days had distinguished himself above all the rest, as he was
accustomed to do in other places under the same circum-
stances. The king did him the greatest honor, for he received
the order of knighthood from his hand, and he had good
reason for it ; he could have found no better man.^

The lord Maximilian Sforza, who occupied the duchy of
Milan, as had his father, Ludovico il Moro, before him,
remained in the castle of Milan, where he was besieged, but
he speedily surrendered and for an indemnity agreed to cede
his duchy to the king ; and those who were in the city were
allowed to depart with their possessions.

I shall say nothing about what happened for the next two
months, but in December the king of France went to visit
the pope in the city of Bologna, where he was received with
great pomp. They consulted together over many things, with
which I will not delay my story.^

1 Another historian of the Good Chevalier gives a brief account of
how Francis was knighted.

The king, before he dubbed the knights, called the noble Chevalier
Bayard and said to him : “ Bayard, my friend, I wish to-day to be
made knight by your hands ; because you have fought on foot and on
horseback in many battles and are held and reputed to be above all
others the most worthy. ...” To these words of the king, Bayard
responded, “ Sire, he who is called, crowned, and anointed with the oil
sent down from heaven, and is king of so noble a realm and the eldest
son of the Church, is a knight above all other knights.” But the king
said, “Come, Bayard; make haste.” Then Bayard took his sword and
said : “ May you be able to do all things as if you were Roland or
Oliver, Godfrey or Baldwin, his brother. Assuredly you are the great-
est prince who ever was made knight. God grant that in war you shall
never take flight.” Then after the manner of a play, he cried aloud to
his sword, holding it aloft in his right hand: “ You are happy indeed to
have conferred the order of chivalry to-day upon so fine and powerful a
king. Certes, my good sword, you will be cared for hereafter like a
sacred relic and honored above all others, and you shall never be carried
again except it be against the Turks, Saracens, or Moors.” Then he
made two passes with his sword and put it back into its scabbard.
(From Champier, Les Gestes, ensemble la vie du preulx Chevalier Bayard;
a very early life, quoted by Roman in his edition of the Loyal Serviteur,
p. 386, note.)

2 See History of Western Europe, p. 366, note (Vol. II, p. 14, note).

Milan ceded
to Francis I.

Readings m Eui'opean Histoiy

234. Guic-
ciardini’s
report on
Spain (1513).

Meager
population
of Spain.

Fertility of
the land.

IV. Spain at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century

In 1512 the republic of Florence dispatched one of
its most distinguished citizens, the historian Guicciar-
dini, 1 to Spain with orders to learn all that he could of
the country and of the character and projects of Ferdi-
nand the Catholic, king of Aragon, who had been inter-
fering for years in Italian matters. Guicciardini remained
in Spain for toward two years, and prepared for his
government a brief but very careful report, in which he
describes the general condition of the country, the tem-
perament of the people, and the court of Ferdinand. If
his observations are trustworthy, it is clear that Spain
was not in a flourishing condition on the eve of Charles
V’s accession, and that it is small wonder that, with the
perverse policy of its kings in undertaking foreign con-
quests and in persecuting the industrious Moors at home,
the kingdom should have declined rapidly when the
money from the American mines began to give out.

Spain is thinly populated, so that towns and burgs are
rare, and between one great town and another scarcely a
house will be found. In short, the inhabitants are few.
There are some fine cities, like Barcelona, Sargossa, Valencia,
Granada, and Seville ; but they are few for such an impor-
tant kingdom and for so great an area of country. Aside
from these principal centers, most of the towns are small and
have rude buildings, of which the greater part, in many places,
are built of mud and are, moreover, full of filth and dirt.

The land is fertile and yields abundantly, since more
grain is raised than is necessary for use at home. The
same may be said of the wine, which is sent by sea to
Flanders and England. Oil, too, is exported in great quan-
tities every year to the countries mentioned above and to

1 See below, p. 30.

Europe at the Opening of tJie Sixteenth Centmy 2 5

Alexandria, to the value of more than sixty thousand ducats.
The fertility is greatest in the lower parts of Andalusia and
Granada, and would be much greater than it is if all the
land were brought under cultivation ; but it is worked only
in the neighborhood of the towns and there badly ; the rest
remains untilled. Much wool is exported annually, amount-
ing, it is said, to two hundred and fifty thousand ducats, as
well as the finest silk, especially from the lower regions.
From Viscaya come iron and steel in considerable quantity,
and much grain, leather, alum, and many other products,
so that if only this nation were industrious and given to
trade it would be rich.

The country is cold in the region of the Pyrenees, very
warm in Andalusia and Granada, and more temperate in
the central districts.

The men of this nation are gloomy of temperament and
swarthy of complexion ; dark in color and short of stature ;
they are proud by nature, and it seems to them as if no
nation could be compared with theirs. They are prone to
boast in their conversation of their own things, and endeavor
to make the best possible appearance. They have little
love for foreigners and are very uncivil toward them. They
are devoted to arms, perhaps more than any other Christian
nation, and are very skillful with them, owing to their agile
frames and their dexterity. In military matters they are
great sticklers for honor, in such wise that rather than sully
it they prefer to die. . . .

The Spaniards are held to be clever and acute, but never-
theless they are not skillful in any of the arts, whether
mechanical or liberal. Almost all the artisans at the king’s
court belong to the French or to some other foreign nation.
The natives do not devote themselves to trade, which they
look upon as degrading ; the pride of the hidalgo goes to
his head, and he would rather turn to arms with little chance
of gain, or serve a grandee in wretchedness and poverty, or,
before the times of the present king, even assault wayfarers,
than engage in trade or any other business. Recently, how-
ever, some attention is beginning to be given in a few places

Haughtiness
of the
Spaniards.

Unpopu-
larity of
trade and
industry.

Readings in European History

to trade, and already in parts of Spain cloth and silks are
manufactured ; • . • for example, in Valencia, Toledo, and
Seville.

But the whole nation is opposed to industry. Accord-
ingly the artisans only work when they are driven to do so
by necessity, and then they take their ease until they have
spent their earnings ; this is the reason why manual labor
is so dear. The meanest cultivators of the soil have the
same habit. They will not exert themselves except under
dire pressure of want, so that they bring much less land
'under cultivation than they might, and the little they do
till is badly cared for. . . .

Aside from a few grandees of the kingdom who display
great luxury, it must be remembered that the rest of the
people live at home in the utmost straits ; and if they have
a little to spend they put it all on their backs or in purchas-
ing a mule, thus making a great show before the world when
they have scarce anything at home, where their surround-
ings are mean in the extreme and where they exercise an
economy truly astonishing.

Although they know how to live on little, they are by no
means free from cupidity. On the contrary, they are very
avaricious, and not having any of the arts to rely upon,
they are driven to robbery, so that in earlier times when
the kingdom was less orderly it was full of assassins, who
were favored by the nature of the country, with its many
mountainous regions and its sparse population. . . .

Superficial The Spaniards have not turned their attention to books,

religion and ^^d neither the nobility nor others have any idea of Latin,
politeness of . . . ^ r i ^ rm

the Spaniards, except a very few, who know a little of the language. They

are outwardly very religious, but not inwardly. They have
infinite ceremonies, which they perform with great exact-
ness, and show much humility in speech, the use of titles,
•and the kissing of hands. Every one is their lord, every
one may command them ; but this means little, and you
can place no faith in them. . . .

This nation down to our own time has been more
oppressed and has enjoyed less glory and dominion than

Europe at the Opening of the Sixtee^ith Century 27

any other nation of Europe, for in the most ancient times
the peninsula was occupied in great part by the Gauls. . . .
Then the Carthaginians took possession of much of it; then
the Romans conquered it all several times. Later the Van-
dals subjugated the region, and from them Andalusia took
its name. Lastly the Moors from Africa conquered not
only the southern regions, but extended their dominion into
Aragon and Castile and even in some instances as far as
the Pyrenees. Down to our own time they held Granada,
Hence it may be said that Spain has been in a prolonged
servitude and has enjoyed no dominion over others, the
which cannot be said of Italy, or France, or of any other
country of Christendom. Certainly this is a singular fact
if we consider how devoted the country is to arms and how
warlike it has always been, even from of old, as the ancient
writers testify. . . .

The reason for this may have been that Spain has always
had better soldiers than leaders, and that her people have
always been more skilled to fight than to govern or com-
mand. Happening upon this matter one day with King Fer-
dinand, he said to me that the nation was devoted to arms
but unorganized, and that great results would be obtained
should any one arise who could hold it well in hand. The
ancient writers praise the nation more for a wild anxiety to
rush to arms and keep up war than for any other virtue.
Accordingly Livy speaks of the people as born to fight, and
in another place he says they carry on war with more rash-
ness than perseverance. Yet I do not know whether this is
the true reason or not.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charles VIIPs Italian Expedition: Johnson, Europe in the Six-
teenth Century, pp. 4-25 ; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I, pp. 104-
118; Dyer and Hassall, Modern History, Vol. I, pp. 214-231.

Louis XII in Italy : Johnson, pp. 33-49.

Alexander VI : Cambridge ATodern History, Vol. I, pp. 225-242.

League of Cambray : Johnson, pp. 57-78; Dyer and Hassall,
Vol. I, pp. 260-286.

Successive
conquests of
the Spanish
peninsula.

A. Refer-
ences.

Readings in European History

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
Ejtglish.

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

Spain: Johnson, pp. 91-106; Cambridge Moderii History, Vol. I,
Chapter XI, pp. 347-383-

Savonarola: Johnson, pp. 25-33; Camb^-idge Modern History,
Vol. I, Chapter V, pp. 144-189.

The Papacy at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century : Cambridge
Modern History, Vol. II, Chapter I, pp. 1-34 (excellent).

Francis I in Italy : Dyer and Hassall, Vol. I, pp. 356-363.

Creighton, History of the Papacy fro7ti the Great Schism to the
Sack of Rome. New edition in 6 vols., 1899-1901. Vol. V contains an
admirable account of the opening of the sixteenth century, with special
reference to the role of the popes. For Savonarola and Charles VIII,
see Chapters VII-VIII.

Pastor, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages.
In course of publication; Vols. I to VI, from the original German,
1898. A work of great erudition, by a distinguished Catholic scholar.
See Vol. V, pp. 181-226, on Savonarola, and Vol. VI, pp. 1-454, on
Italy and the popes, 1492-15 12.

Symonds, Age of Despots, Chapters VII, IX, and X, on Savonarola
and Charles VIII.

Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, Vol. VII, Part II, and
Vol. VIII, Part I.

Burke, U. R., A History of Spain from the Earliest Times to the
Death of Ferdinand the Catholic, 2 vols., 2d ed., 1900, edited by Hume.
Vol. II is the best and most recent account of the reign of Ferdinand
and Isabella.

Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, 3 vols.
Fuller than Burke and charming in style, but as it was completed in
1836, under very adverse circumstances, it is antiquated and somewhat
wanting in critical exactness.

Monstrelet, Chronicles, translated by Johnes, 2 vols., 1877. Mon-
strelet (d. 1453) was a conscientious continuator of Froissart (see above,
Vol. I, p. 487). After Monstrelet’s death, his work was brought down
by various writers to 1516, and so includes the reign of Charles VIII
and (very briefly) that of Louis XII.

Ranke, Geschichte der rotnanischen und gertnanischen Vblker von
I4g4 bis ipi4, 1824; 2d ed., 1874. Although the earliest work of this
distinguished historian, this is still valuable on account of the discus-
sion of the sources, especially of Guicciardini’s history (see above.

Europe at the Ope7iing of the Sixtee7ith Century 29

Vol. I, p. 544, and below, p. 30), upon which previous writers had
relied. This discussion, “ Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber,”
forms an appendix to the narrative.

Histoire de France, edited by Lavisse. Vol. V, Part I, pp. 1-132,
for the Italian wars; the remainder of the volume deals with France
at the opening of the sixteenth century.

ViLLARl, The Life and Times of Niccolo Machiavelli, translated
from the Italian. Also, by the same writer. The Life and Times of
Girolamo Savojtarola. New, cheaper editions, in one volume each.

' The best biographies of these distinguished Florentines.

Gregorovius, Lucretia Borgia. From the German, 1903. Describes
the life in Rome under Alexander VI.

SCHIRRMACHER, Geschichte voit Spanien, Vol. VII (1492-1516), 1902.
This work belongs to a great series called Geschichte der europdischen
Staate7i, edited originally by the distinguished historian Heeren. The
first volume of the collection appeared in 1829, and the end is not yet.

Hefele, Cardinal Ximines wid die kirchliche^i Zustdnde Spaniens
am ende des ipten und Anfang des ibteii fahrlmnderts, 2d ed., 1851.

Delaborde, V expedition de Charles VILL en Italie, Paris, 1888, 4to.
Finely illustrated and scholarly.

Ranke likens the sources of modern history to a vast museum,
where we see about us genuine specimens and mere imitations, the
beautiful and the repulsive, the striking and the inconspicuous, all col-
lected from many nations and belonging to various periods and yet
lying beside one another, without order or explanation (“ Zur Kritik
neuerer Geschichtschreiber,” Vorrede). It seems at first sight hopeless
and vain to give a very brief account of the multitudinous sources for
the history of western Europe, since the opening of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Yet those of first-rate importance which have a general bearing
and may be looked for in our few large American libraries are by
no means innumerable. In any case it will be possible to give the
advanced student, in this and the succeeding bibliographies, some little
idea of the great classes of material — state papers, memoirs, corre-
spondence, diaries, reports — upon which the historian must rely.

Marino Sanuto, Diarii, 58 vols., 4to, 1879-1903. This is the
most detailed and voluminous history of a period ever written, so far
as is known, by a contemporary. Sanuto (1466-1536) was a Venetian,
and after preparing a history of Charles VIII’s invasion, he began in
1496 keeping a detailed journal of events as they happened. This he
continued for thirty-eight years. The author includes many state papers.

The

Readings in Eitropean History

The reports

of the

Venetian

ambassadors

in the

sixteenth

century.

letters, and other documents, and his “diaries ” are a mine of informa-
tion for the first third of the sixteenth century.

Le relazioni degli a7tibasciatori Veneti al senaio duraytte il seculo
dechyiosesto, edited by Alberi, 15 vols., Florence, 1839-1863. The
prudent Venetian government had made a rule as early as 1268 that
their ambassadors to foreign lands should on their return promptly file
a written statement of the things they had observed which it might be
advantageous for the republic to know. The earliest example of these
reports which has been discovered is dated 1492, and there are few
earlier than 1535. In Alberi ’s edition of these extraordinary docu-
ments (of which examples are given below, pp. 31 sqq. and — sqqt), six
volumes relate to states outside Italy, five to the Italian states, and three
to the Turkish possessions. The Italian in which they are written is
singularly simple and clear.

Dumont, Corps universel diployjiatique du droit des gens : contenant
un recneil des Ty'aitez d'aUiance, de paix, de treve, etc., 1726—1731,
8 vols., folio, and a supplement by Rousset containing treaties omitted
by Dumont and adding later ones to 1738, 2 vols., folio. The best-
known old collection of treaties.

B ORCHARD, Diarinm^ sive rerum urbanmn commentarii^ iq.8j-ipo6,
edited by Thuasne, 3 vols., 1883-1885. By a German connected with
the papal palace, who coldly observed and recorded the events at
Rome, especially under Alexander VI.

Guicciardini, Storia d' Italia. This relates especially to the open-
ing of the sixteenth century, and comes down to 1534. Formerly used
as the most accessible and reliable source, but sharply criticised by
Ranke in the appendix to his Geschichte der romanischen tind germa-
nischen Vblker, where the other sources for the period are also discussed.

CHAPTER XXIV

GERMANY BEFORE THE PROTESTANT REVOLT

I. Germany in the Time of Maximilian I

It would be difficult indeed to give a clearer or more
comprehensive account of the conditions in Germany
than that submitted by the Venetian ambassador, Qui-
rini, on his return from the court of Maximilian in i 507.^
Maximilian was just then contemplating an expedition
to Italy, and consequently Quirini opens his report to
the doge and council as follows :

Since, most serene prince [namely, the doge], and most
sage and weighty council, all the discord which is now to be
observed among Christian peoples appears to be due to the
most serene king of the Romans [namely, Maximilian] and
to the Empire, it seemed to me my duty to report to your
excellencies concerning affairs in Germany with such full-
ness as to enable you in the present emergencies and in
those which you will have to face from, let us say, to-day
the better to reach your wise decisions.

First, to proceed in an orderly fashion, I will endeavor to
narrate all that I have been able to learn of the extent of
that country, its government and resources, and the customs
throughout Germany ; then of the character and resources
of his Majesty the emperor, and the relations which have
existed and now exist between him and the princes and
estates of the Empire, and between him and the Swiss ;
lastly, of the disposition of the Empire and the king toward

^ For an account of the reports of the Venetian ambassadors, see
above, p. 30.

235. A
Venetian
ambas-
sador’s
account of
Germany
in 1507.

Readings in E'uropean History

Enumeration
of the chief
German
princes.

The ecclesias-
tical princes.

The free
towns.

Limited
power of
the emperor.

this republic and the rest of the Christian rulers, and what
his Majesty may be able to accomplish at this juncture.

This country of Germany is large and populous, full of
principalities, towns, cities, burgs, and castles. . . . Among
the temporal rulers there are two kings, about thirty dukes
and an archduke, four landgraves, and a great number of
counts. The chief among these rulers are the kings of
Bohemia and of Denmark, the archduke of Austria, two
dukes of Saxony, the duke of Brunswick, the duke of Liine-
burg, the duke of Pomerania, the duke of Mechlenburg and
he of Jiilich and Cleves, the duke of Franconia, the dukes
of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, the count palatine, the land-
grave of Alsace, two margraves of Brandenburg and one of
Baden.

Of those in Germany who are at once spiritual and tem-
poral princes, there are five archbishops — Mayence, Cologne,
Treves, Mechlenburg,^ and Salzburg — and about twenty-five
bishops. Of these latter, the chief are Wurzburg, Bamberg,
Strasburg, Augsburg, Freising, Eichstadt, Liege, Constance,
and Trent. Beside these, there are twenty abbots, five mas-
ters of religious orders, and fifteen priors, — all princes of
the Empire, who combine spiritual and temporal powers like
the bishops.

Besides the above-mentioned principalities there are in
Germany about a hundred free towns, of which twenty-eight
belong to the Swabian League, sixty-two to the great league
of Dantzig and Liibeck [namely, the Hanseatic League],
while the rest lie in the region of the Rhine. The principal
members of the great league are Dantzig, Stolp, Colberg,
Liibeck, Limburg, Hamburg, and Stade; of the Swabian
League, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, Memmingen, and Stras-
burg. The chief of the Rhine district are Cologne, Speyer,
Worms, Frankfort, and Constance. And this ends what I
have to say about the size of Germany. . . .

The authority over the Empire vested in the emperor, or
king of the Romans, goes no further than the laws and jus-
tice permit, and he cannot despotically force the princes
1 Magdeburg is meant.

Germany before the Protestant Revolt

and free towns to obey any particular desire of his unless he
first convoke all the Empire to a diet. . . .

The king of the Romans, or emperor, who propos^ in
the interest of the Empire to have a careful deliberation,
sends a summons to each prince, whether ecclesiastical or
secular, and to each of the free towns, that they should all
within two months, or three, or whatever time may seem
good to him, come together in a certain place, either in per-
son or through representatives or substitutes, on business of
importance to the Empire. And all those who are sum-
moned are obliged to come within the limit set ; and if they
do not come, they incur whatever penalty the king shall
impose upon them ; and if they do not pay the penalty,
they may be excommunicated^ by the emperor, just as one
is excommunicated by the pope. In this case it is free to
all to rob and kill the person excommunicated. For this
reason every one takes care to come to the diet or send a
representative, and not to disobey the emperor in any mat-
ter in which, with the consent of the Empire, he may com-
mand. . . .

When all the princes and representatives have presented
themselves, either in person or through their substitutes,
the diet opens. The king, or emperor, declares the object
and cause for the calling of the diet ; he then submits a pro-
posal ; the princes remain in consultation some days and
then make their answer. This the king accepts, and makes
another proposition (“ iterumf as it is called), and so busi-
ness proceeds, the diet either taking action or postponing
its decision to another time. In this way two and some-
times three months pass.

But the princes or their representatives do not spend all
their time in deliberating upon the matters for which the diet
was summoned, but settle as well a thousand controversies
between prince and prince, between free towns and princes,
and between one town and another ; they make, moreover,
divers provisions according as necessity demands.

1 Namely, put to the ban, i.e. outlawed. For an illustration, see below
pp. 87 sq.

How the diet
is summoned

The ban.

Method of
procedure
in the diet.

Disputes
adjusted by
the diet.

Readings in European History

The method
of voting
by orders,
not by
individuals.

Execution
of the diet’s
decrees.

The free
towns.

In reaching decisions on important matters the diet is
wont to have but three votes, or ballots : one is cast by the
electors, the second by the princes, and the third by the
representatives of the free towns. . . . When the diet is
about to come to an end, these three votes are compared,
and the decision sanctioned by two of them is regarded as
conclusive and established; and each prince of the empire
whether present or absent, and similarly every free town, is
obliged to obey that which the diet decides, under heavy
penalties, both as to furnishing money and sending troops
in the manner prescribed.

The king, or emperor, has full authority, as soon as the
diet has dissolved, to order every one to obey its decisions.
If, nevertheless, some one ventures to disobey, the whole
Empire, in order not to see its commands disregarded,
always turns upon the offender, as happened in recent years
in the case of the count palatine, who, for his refusal to
accede to what was determined upon at the diet of Augs-
burg, which was especially concerned with the heritage of
Duke George of Bavaria, roused the anger of the king and
the whole Empire against him, and in a brief space of time
was destroyed. For this reason all the princes and free
towns are careful to follow the decisions of the diets, nor do
they venture to contravene in any way what has been estab-
lished. Decisions of the diet cannot be changed except by
another diet similar to that which first ratified them.

As for the government of the free towns, each one rules
itself by its council, to which are admitted citizens, traders
who are not citizens, and artisans ; yet not all the members
of these classes are included in the council, for the number
varies with the size of the place, and changes from time to
time. These councils appoint the magistrates, who admin-
ister justice for the time being and, moreover, regulate the
revenues and public affairs of the town precisely as if it was
a free and independent state.

Some of the towns owe their freedom to privileges granted
by the emperor for deeds of valor in the struggle of the Em-
pire against the infidels, who were earlier very troublesome.

Germany before the Protestant Revolt

Others gained their freedom by giving a sum of money to the
temporal lord or bishop who held them, and who consented
accordingly to cede to the town the territory belonging to it.
So many towns have gained their freedom in these two ways
during the period that the Germans have enjoyed control
of the Empire, that they now number nearly a hundred. In
order to maintain their freedom they are accustomed to unite
themselves together in leagues for mutual protection and
to oppose those princes who would subjugate them. They
receive into their leagues those princes of the Empire who
wish to join them, whether ecclesiastical or secular. The
leagues are temporary and are continued or changed from
time to time as suits their members. . . }

The customs and manners of this German nation are as
follows: first, there are four kinds of persons, — princes of
the Empire, nobles, citizens of the free towns, and, lastly,
the common people. The princes are in the habit of remain-
ing in their own territories far from the court, where they sup-
port by their income, so far as they can, the nobles [knights] of
the region. These princes are almost continually at strife with
one another or with some of the free towns. If they are poor,
they generally permit their retainers to attack and rob on the
highways. They are naturally proud and insolent, and feel
resentment toward any one who is able to rival them in any
respect. They heartily hate the free towns, and all republics
and free communities in general, especially the Swiss and our
most exalted senate, for it seems to them that the Swiss have
always shown themselves rebels toward the Empire and that
your sublimities, paying little attention to their authority, hold
much territory which they claim is not yours and which they
believe should rightfully be divided among them.

Moreover the chief temporal princes are in the habit of
leaving their principality to the eldest son and then provid-
ing for the rest of their children with other territories, bish-
oprics, or ecclesiastical benefices ; so that if a duke has ten
sons, all demand to be dukes like their father. The result is

1 Here follows an account of the military system and resources of
Germany.

Character of
the princes.

Reason for
the great
number
of dukes,
counts, etc.,
in Germany.

The knights.

The burghers.

The common
people.

36 Readings in European History

that there are an infinite multitude of counts, dukes, and mar-
graves in Germany, the chief of whom have been mentioned
above. Consequently the greater part of the temporal princes
are always ready to descend into Italy in order to provide,
some their sons, some their brothers or nephews, with prin-
cipalities. The ecclesiastical princes, on the other hand,
and the free towns would prefer to live in peace and not
waste their substance. The princes all live in abundance,
but give more attention to drinking than anything else.
They are miserably dressed, nor do they affect much cere-
mony in their courts.

The knights are accustomed to live in some castle far
from a town, or at the court of some prince, or among the
mountains in solitary regions. They live and dress wretch-
edly, hate the burghers, and are poor, but so proud that
nothing in the world would induce them to engage in com-
merce. They are devoted to fighting ; and when that is
wanting they have nothing to do but to hunt or set to plun-
dering on the highways. Were it not for severe repression,
no one could travel safely in any part of Germany. Even as
it is, in Franconia, where there are a great many of these
gentlemen, the roads are very insecure ; for example, in the
region of Nuremburg and in many other places.

The burghers of the free towns are all merchants. They
live well but dress ill, although there are some very rich
people among them. They maintain justice, desire peace,
hate the knights heartily and fear the princes, and for this
reason the cities form leagues among themselves. The towns
are moreover at enmity each with its bishop on account of
his desire to exercise the temporal as well as- the spiritual
authority over the town. This hostility is increased by the
natural ill feeling between the burghers on the one hand and
the knights and princes on the other, for the bishops are
always chosen from among the knights and princes, since the
canons, who have the right to elect the bishop, all belong by
descent to the noble classes and not to the burghers.

The lower classes, whether subject to the princes or the
free towns, are poor, wild by nature, do not fear to endanger

Germany before the Protestant Revolt

their lives, and are very loyal to their lords. They are loath
to exert themselves to earn anything, and the little they get
they speedily drink up. _

II. “The Ship of Fools” and “The Praise of Folly”

T-wo famous satires of the early sixteenth century
afford an idea of the evils of the time which were upper-
most in men’s minds. The first, The Ship of Fools, by
Sebastian Brant, a citizen of Strasburg, was originally
issued in 1494. It describes in lively German verse the
various kinds of fools that were got together to be
shipped off to Fool-land. Brant’s “fools,” who are gen-
erally of the vicious variety, range from the harmless
impostor who buys books that he is too lazy to read, to
the scandal monger, the cheating lawyer, the blasphemer,
and the robber knight. Brant’s book enjoyed incredible
popularity. It was praised by scholars and was devoured
eagerly by the common people, who were delighted to
have so amusing and instructive a book in their own
language. It was speedily translated into Latin, Dutch,
French, and English. The following passages give some
idea of Brant’s style of treating his theme. ^

Europe’s door is opened wide.

There’s nothing to stay the enemy’s tide.

Whose ardor knows no rest nor sleep

1 Brant, Narrenschiff, critical edition, with elaborate introduction
and scholarly notes by Zarncke, 1854; more recent and convenient.
Das Narrenschiff, edited by Goedeke, 1872. A translation into the
German of to-day is given by Simrock, 1872. Barclay’s version in
English, — a very diffuse adaptation of the original, — first published
in 1509, was beautifully reprinted in two volumes in 1874. This edition
is especially noteworthy on account of the admirable reproductions of
the original woodcuts, in which Brant himself took great interest and
which are often more humorous than the text itself.

236. The
Ship of Fools,
by Sebas-
tian Brant.

Readings m Europea?i History

Danger from
the Turks.

Selfish policy
of the
European
princes.

Unsuitable
persons made
priests.

Till he drink of Christian blood full deep.

First plucked the wicked Saracen’s hand
At Jerusalem and the Holy Land ;

The Turk next tore so much away
To count it o’er were no child’s play.

Then rose in arms, town after town,

And paid no heed to kaiser or crown.

Last, the princes plucked the goose together.

For each of them must have a feather.

Small wonder is it, I declare.

If soon the Empire ’s stripped and bare.

Ye princes, see the engulfing wave
In which ye too, perchance, may bathe;

For if the Empire goes to wreck
Methinks ye’ll not stay long on deck.

Attend and mark me, who have ears ;

Its course our ship full wildly steers ;

If Christ no more our pilot be.

Ne’er shall we ride this storm-tossed sea.

Come, princes ! Ye, by God’s decree.

Are placed above the rest, to be
Their heads and leaders ; — if, indeed.

Instead of leading, you don’t mislead.

Do what becomes your rank and station
To check this great abomination,

Lest sun and moon refuse us light
And we be lost in ruin’s night.

Small heed ye pay, but ere I’m done
I promise ye that many a one
Who for my words now has no care
Shall yet, through me, a fool’s cap wear.

Every one is anxious to make his son a priest so that
he may help support his relatives :

’Tis not the peasant’s pious heart.
Nor wish to save his better part,

Germany before the Protestant Revolt

That bids him send his son away
Among the priestly ranks to stay.

Oh, no ! ’T is that he may support
His relatives; — a thing, in short.

Full easy for a priest to do.

Who, though no book he ever knew,

Could still enjoy his benefice
And lead a merry life, I wis.

For priests no more than monkeys know
Of saving souls from realms below ;

I would n’t trust a cow to one.

Full sure she’d either kick or run ;

And as for matins or the mass,

I ’d rather hear the miller’s ass
Take up the lute and try a song.

But the bishops do the greatest wrong
When they consent to consecration
Without a mite of education.^

Erasmus’ Praise of Folly was written by a great
scholar to please other scholars. Instead of Brant’s
jingling rhymes in the language of the people, we have
elegant Latin prose with some admixture of Greek words
and phrases and many a subtle classical allusion, which
only the learned could enjoy. In his prefatory letter to
Sir Thomas More, at whose home Erasmus finished
writing The Praise of Folly in 1 508, the author explains
that he thought out the little volume on his way back

1 Here is an example of Brant’s style in modernized German :

Priesterschaft schatzt man so gering
Als war’ es ein gar leichtes Ding.

Drum findet man viel junger Pfaffen
Die so viel kdnnen wie die Affen,

Und sollen Seelen doch erbauen !

Kein Vieh war’ ihnen zu vertrauen ;

Wissen so viel von Kirchenregieren
Als Mullers Esel vom Lautenieren.

Erasmus
explains the
character of
his Praise
of Folly.

Readings in European History

from Italy. Some, he feared, might think the matter
too trivial for a theologian like himself ; to others his
wit might seem more acrid than befitted a Christian.
But many great men had joked about human foibles
before him. He was only amusing himself in any case.
“ Moreover, is it not unfair that we should permit those
in all walks of life to play except the scholar, especially
since trivial matters often lead us to serious considera-
tions and since ludicrous things can be so treated that
the reader will sometimes gain more benefit from them
• — if he is not too stupid — than from the gravest and
most elaborate argumentation } " He praises Folly, but
not altogether foolishly He mentions no names and
has avoided acerbity, which, as he points out, is by no
means true of St. Jerome’s satirical letters.

Erasmus could deal freely with the weaknesses of
prelates and princes, of theologians and monks, because
he was addressing the learned in a learned language ;
and then his bantering tone protected him from serious
condemnation, for he has Folly step into the pulpit
and assert her right to have her say. She claims that
although men erect no altars to her, they all worship
her and owe most of their happiness to the comfortable
illusions and self-complacency which she grants them.

Folly, it should be noted, is by no means the same
person throughout the little book ; sometimes she rep-
- resents stupidity, sometimes silliness, sometimes she
seems to stand for an amiable simplicity or naivete,

1 How neatly he says in his preface : Ut enim nihil nugacius quam
seria nugatorie tractare; ita nihil festivius quam ita tractare nugas ut
nihil minus quam nugatus fuisse videaris. The prefatory letter is
addressed to More, whose name suggested the Greek title of The
Praise of Folly : Encomium Moriae.

Germany before the Protestant Revolt

which does not take life too seriously or involve itself
in needless complications^

[After holding up to ridicule the kind of person who is
always telling, or listening to, ghost stories and tales of
prodigies and miracles, Erasmus continues:] To this same
class of fools belong those who beguile themselves with the
silly but pleasing notion that if they look upon a picture or
image of St. Christopher, — that huge Polyphemus, — they
will not die that day ; or that he who salutes an image of
St. Barbara with the proper form of address will come back
from battle safe ; or that one who approaches St. Erasmus
on certain days with wax candles and prayers will soon be
rich. They have found a new Hercules in St. George, - —
a sort of second Hippolytus. They seem to adore even
his horse, which is scrupulously decked out with gorgeous
trappings, and additional offerings are constantly being
made in the hope of gaining new favors. His bronze
helmet one would think half divine, the way people swear
by it.

And what shall I say of those who comfortably delude
themselves with imaginary pardons for their sins, and who
measure the time in purgatory with an hourglass into years,
months, days, and hours, with all the precision of a mathe-
matical table ? There are plenty, too, who, relying upon
certain magical little certificates and prayers, — which some
pious impostor devised either in iun or for the benefit of
his pocket, — believe that they may procure riches, honor,
future happiness, health, perpetual prosperity, long life, a
lusty old age, — nay, in the end, a seat at the right hand
of Christ in heaven ; but as for this last, it matters not how

1 There is an old English translation of The Praise of Folly, with
illustrations by Erasmus’ friend Holbein, the great German painter.
This has been several times reprinted, and is not hard to obtain. The
translation is spirited, but recklessly free, since many sentences are
added which have no equivalent in the original. While it is too inac-
curate to be reproduced here, it nevertheless gives a good idea of the
scope of the work and even of Erasmus’ style of treatment.

237. Ex-
tracts from
The Praise
of Folly.

Adoration of
the saints.

Indulgences.

Readings in European History

Petitioning
the saints.

long it be deferred: they will content themselves with the
joys of heaven only when they must finally surrender the
pleasures of this world, to which they lovingly cling.

The trader, the soldier, and the judge think that they
can clean up the Augean stable of a lifetime, once for all, by
sacrificing a single coin from their ill-gotten gains. They
flatter themselves that all sorts of perjury, debauchery,
drunkenness, quarrels, bloodshed, imposture, perfidy, and
treason can be compounded for by contract and so adjusted
that, having paid off their arrears, they can begin a new
score.

How foolish, or rather how happy, are those who promise
themselves more than supernal happiness if they repeat the
verses of the seven holy psalms ! Those magical lines are
supposed to have been taught to St. Bernard by a demon,
who seems to have been a wag ; but he was not very clever,
and, poor fellow, was frustrated in his attempt to deceive
the saint. These silly things which even I, Folly, am almost
ashamed of, are approved not only by the common herd but
even by the teachers of religion.

How foolish, too, for religious bodies each to give prefer-
ence to its particular guardian saint! Nay, each saint has
his particular office allotted to him, and is addressed each
in his special way : this one is called upon to alleviate tooth-
ache ; that, to aid in childbirth ; others, to restore a stolen
article, bring rescue to the shipwrecked, or protect cattle, —
and so on with the rest, who are much too numerous to
mention. A few indeed among the saints are good in more
than one emergency, especially the Holy Virgin, to whom
the common man now attributes almost more than to her
Son.

And for what, after all, do men petition the saints except
for foolish things ? Look at the votive offerings which cover
the walls of certain churches and with which you see even
the ceiling filled ; do you find any one who expresses his
gratitude that he has escaped Folly or because he has
become a whit wiser ? One perhaps was saved from drown-
ing, another recovered when he had been run through by

Germany before the Protestant Revolt

his enemy; another, while his fellows were fighting, ran
away with expedition and success ; another, on the point
of being hanged, escaped, through the aid of some saintly
friend of thieves, and lived to relieve a few more of those
whom he believed to be overburdened with their wealth. . . .

These various forms of foolishness so pervade the whole
life of Christians that even the priests themselves find no
objection to admitting, not to say fostering, them, since they
do not fail to perceive how many tidy little sums accrue to
them from such sources. But what if some odious philoso-
pher should chime in and say, as is quite true : “You will not
die badly if you live well. You are redeeming your sins when
you add to the sum that you contribute a hearty detestation
of evil doers : then you may spare yourself tears, vigils, invo-
cations, fasts, and all that kind of life. You may rely upon
any saint to aid you when once you begin to imitate his life.”

As for the theologians, perhaps the less said the better
on this gloomy and dangerous theme, since they are a style
of man who show themselves exceeding supercilious and
irritable unless they can heap up six hundred conclusions
about you and force you to recant ; and if you refuse, they
promptly brand you as a heretic, — for it is their custom to
terrify by their thunderings those whom they dislike. It
must be confessed that no other group of fools are so reluc-
tant to acknowledge Folly’s benefits toward them, although
I have many titles to their gratitude, for I make them so in
love with themselves that they seem to be happily exalted
to the third heaven, whence they look down with something
like pity upon all other mortals, wandering about on the
earth like mere cattle.

Then they hedge themselves about with such an array of
magisterial definitions, conclusions, corollaries, propositions
explicate and implicate, and do so abound in subterfuges,
that chains forged by Vulcan himself could not hold them
so firm but that they could escape by one of those distinc-
tions which enable them to cut all knots as easily as with
a two-edged ax, so readily do they think up and rattle out
new and prodigious terms and expressions.

The scholas-
tic theolo-
gians.

Scholastic

disputations,

Readings in European History

The theolo-
gians set
themselves
above

St. Paul and
the apostles.

Finally, the theologians are at their best when they are
explaining (in their own opinion) such deep mysteries as :
How was the world founded and brought into order ? How
is original sin transmitted to posterity.? . . . How can the
accidents subsist in the eucharist without their substance ?
Nay, these are trite and easy questions. The great and
illustrious theologians, as they dub themselves, will only
awaken when something like the following is proposed :
Does supernatural generation require time for its accom-
plishment? Has Christ a double relation of sonship? Is
the proposition possible, “ God the Father hates the Son ” ?
Might God have chosen to assume the form of a woman,
a devil, an ass, a gourd, or a stone ? . . .

St. Paul, they admit, was distinguished for his faith, but
nevertheless when he said, “ Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” he defined it
but inaccurately. He may have excelled in charity, yet he
fails to limit and define it with dialectic precision in his
first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter xiii. The disciples
administered the eucharist reverently, and yet had they
been asked about the terminus a quo and the terminus ad
quern of transubstantiation ; as to how a body can be in two
places at the same time ; of the differences which exist
between Christ’s body in heaven, on the cross, and in the
holy wafer ; or at what point does transubstantiation occur,
since the prayer through which it is effected is, as a quan-
titas discreta, in a state of flux, — asked of these matters the
apostles would not have replied with the acuteness with which
the followers of Scotus distinguish and define these subtleties.

The apostles knew the mother of Jesus, but who of them
could philosophically prove how she was preserved from the
sin of Eve, as do our divines ? Peter received the keys, and
from one who would not commit them to unworthy hands,
but whether or not he knew how one could have the key of
knowledge without knowledge itself, he certainly never dis-
cussed the matter. The apostles baptized, but never taught
the formal, material, efficient, or final cause of baptism, nor
do they mention delible or indelible characters. . . . The

Germany before the Protestant Revolt

apostles inculcated grace, but never distinguished between
gratia gratis data and gratia gratificans. They exhorted to
good works, but did not perceive the distinction between
opus operans and opus operatum. They frequently urge char-
ity upon us without dividing “ infused ” from “ acquired,”
or explaining whether charity be an accident or a substance,
a created or an uncreated thing.

Next to the theologians in their self-satisfaction may be
ranked those who are commonly called the religious and the
monks, both terms quite wide of the truth, since a good part
of them are a long ways from religion, and as for the monks
(whose name suggests solitude), they are to be met in every
byway. I do not see who could be more miserable than
they unless Folly came to their aid in many ways. Although
every one so execrates that stripe of man that even a casual
meeting with them is regarded as ominous, yet they have a
magnificent idea of their own virtues. First they deem it the
most exalted piety to have let learning so completely alone
that they cannot even read. Then when they bray out the
psalms — which they cannot understand — in the churches,
they flatter themselves that they are delighting the ears of
the saints with their sweet harmonies. Some of them laud
their beggary and filth as great virtues and loudly clamor for
bread from door to door. They beset the inns, coaches, and
ships, not a little to the prejudice of other beggars. . . .

The greater part of the monks exhibit such confidence in
ceremonies and trivial human traditions that one would think
a single heaven would scarce suffice as a worthy reward for
their merits. They little think that Christ will put them off
with a “ Who hath required these things at your hands ? ”
and will call them to account only for the stewardship of
his legacy of love. One will confidently call attention to his
paunch, filled with all kinds of fish ; another will pour out
a hundred bushels of psalms ; a third will enumerate his
myriad fastings and will tell how a single meal nearly killed
him ; a fourth will produce as many ceremonies as would
fill seven merchant ships ; a fifth will plead that for three-
score years he never so much as touched money except he

The monks.

Confidence
of the monks
in mere cere-
monies and
externals.

Origin of the
Letters of
Obscure Men.

46 Readings in European History

fingered it through double thick gloves ; a sixth will bring
along his hood so old and nasty that no sailor would venture
to protect himself with it. . . . But Christ shall interrupt
their boastings: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees!
I left you one great precept, but of that alone I hear nothing
from you. I told you plainly in my gospel, with no disguis-
ing parables, that my Father’s kingdom was promised, not
for cowls, petitions, and fastings, but for deeds of love. I
know them not who rely on their own merits.” . . . When
the monks and friars shall hear these things and shall see
simple sailors and carters preferred to them, how shall their
faces fall as they look at one another !

III. The “Letters of Obscure Men”

John Reuchlin, the famous Hebrew scholar, became
involved in a controversy with some of the more fanat-
ical and intolerant monks and theologians, who were
bent on seizing and destroying the books of the Jews,
which they declared were full of attacks on Christianity.
Reuchlin thought that only harm could come from such
a policy, and he was led to defend himself and his
position with much warmth in a little book which he
called the Aiigenspiegel. This came into the hands of
the theological faculty of Cologne, which drew up a
list of heretical propositions found therein ; and Ortuin
Gratius, one of the members of the faculty, added an
appendix of Latin verses. Reuchlin was summoned be-
fore Hochstraten, the inquisitor general, to answer the
charges against him, but appealed to the pope, who
referred the case to the bishop of Speyer. This prelate
declared the book free from heresy. Then Hochstraten,
in his turn, appealed to Rome, where the case was
pending when the Letters of Obscure Men appeared.

Germany before the Protestant Revolt

The prosecution and trial of Reuchlin created a great
deal of excitement in Germany among literary men. In
March, 1514, Reuchlin had published a collection of the
letters of sympathy which he had received, under the
title. Letters of Distmgidshed Me7i, addressed to John
Reuchlin. These suggested to Crotus Rubeanus, a
famous humanist at Erfurt, and his friends a method of
attacking the theological party by means of a series of
letters purporting to be written to the above-mentioned
Ortuin Gratius by his simple admirers and disciples.
The modest title. Letters of Obscure Men., recommended
itself as antithetical to that of the boastful collection of
the letters of distinguished contemporaries which Reuch-
lin had issued. The first series was published in 1515,
and the second series, in which Ulrich von Hutten
doubtless had a hand, in 1 5 1 7.

The bad Latin, the fruitless quibbles, the naiVe con-
fessions of habitual looseness of life, and the hate which
the theologians bore towards Reuchlin and the whole
tribe of humanists, form the chief interest and the ever-
recurring themes of the letters. The wit is in turn good,
bad, and indifferent. The general conception of the work
is perhaps its most delicately humorous feature.

Henricus Schaffsmulius to Master Ortuin Gratius, many salu-
tations :

When I first went to the Curia you told me that I should
write to you frequently and address any theological ques-
tions to you, for you wished to answer them more satisfac-
torily than could those about the papal court at Rome. I,
therefore, wish now to ask your opinion in the case of one
who should on Friday, which is the sixth day, or upon any
other fast day, eat an egg in which there is a chick.. For we
were recently dining at an inn in the Campo Fiore, and were

238. Ex-
amples of
the Letters of
Obscure Men.

Readmgs in European History

eating eggs. And I, opening my egg, discovered that there
was a chick within ; but upon showing it to my companion,
he urged me to swallow it straightway before the host caught
sight of it, for otherwise I should have to pay a Carolinus or
a Julius for a fowl, since it is the custom here to pay for
everything the host places on the table, because they will
take nothing back. Now if he saw that there was a chick
in the egg he would say, “You must pay me for a fowl,” —
for he would charge for a little one just as much as he would
for a big one.

And I immediately swallowed the egg and the chick at
the same time, and afterwards it occurred to me that it was
Friday, and I said to my companion, “You have caused me
to commit a mortal sin in eating meat on Friday.”

But he said that it was not a mortal sin, nor even a venial
sin, since a chick may not be considered other than an egg
until it is born. And he remarked that it is just the same
in the case of cheese in which there are worms, and of the
worms in cherries, and in peas, and young beans ; but they
are eaten on the sixth day, and even on the vigils of the
apostles. But inn proprietors are such rascals that they
sometimes say that these are meat in order to gain thereby.

Then I went out and thought about it, and, by Heaven,
Master Ortuin, I am much disturbed, and I do not know
what I ought to do about it. It is true that I might take
counsel with a member of the papal court, but I know that
they have bad consciences. As for myself, it seems to me
that chicks in the egg are meat, because the matter is already
formed and shaped into the members and body of an ani-
mal, and it has animal life. It is otherwise in the case of
worms in cheese and in other comestibles, for worms are
accounted to be fish, as I have heard from a physician, who
is also a very able scientist.

I beseech of you earnestly to reply to my question. - For
if you hold that it is a mortal sin, then I wish to seek
absolution before I go to Germany ; for you probably know
that our lord, Jacob Hochstraten, borrowed a thousand
florins from the bank, and I believe he would want to make

Germa7ty before the Protestant Revolt 49

something out of the case; and may the devil take that John
Reuchlin and those other poets and men of law, who are
trying to fight the Church of God — that is to say, the theo-
logians, who are the real backbone of the Church, as Christ
said, “ Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my
church.”

May the Lord God preserve you. Farewell.

Written in the city of Rome.

Philip Schneider of Erfurt to Master Ortuin Gratius :

I honorably salute my honorable and venerable master.
You wrote to me lately that a certain poet in Germany,
called Erasmus of Rotterdam, had composed many books
and had especially composed a letter to the pope in which
he commended John Reuchlin. You know I saw that letter.
And I have seen another big book called The Netv Testa-
menth and he sent that book to the pope, and I think that
he would be glad if the pope would approve the book. But
I hope that he will not. For the master of the sacred pal-
ace is a notable man of much reputation ; he says that he
can prove that Erasmus is a heretic because in some pas-
sages he attacks that holy doctor and will not support the
theologians. Besides the New Testament the same writer
has published something called Erasmus’ Folly, which con-
tains many scandalous propositions which are not reverent,
and it sometimes contains open blasphemies. For this reason
the Paris theologians wanted to burn such a book. So I do
not believe that the pope will approve that new big book.

Even our master Jacob Hochstraten is in good spirits.
Yesterday he invited me to dinner and toldjne that a cardi-
nal told him that he would win his case. But John Wick,
who is John Reuchlin’s lawyer, presses him hard, I was
once present when Master Jacob said to him, “You are
against me, but believe me, if I come out ahead, you will
not be safe anywhere in Germany,” Again he said to him,
“ I know that Reuchlin has not money enough to pay you,

1 Erasmus had published his edition of the Greek New Testament a
few months before this was written.

50 Readings in European History

and yet you are so rash as to turn our whole order against
you.” There is one thing more. Dr. Martin Groningen pro-
poses to translate the Auge^ispiegel. I understand that our
master Jacob has recently given him a hundred ducats to
falsify the text of the book, and if he does so then you
will win. And I hope that he will do it. Write me anything
which comes to your attention. Adieu.

From Rome.

One of the “obscure men,” Philip Schlauraff, in a
long journey about Germany met many humanists who
treated him badly. At Strasburg he came upon Brant,
who wanted to see him off to Fool-land.

Venit Sebastianus Brant,

Der nam mich bei der Hand
Dicens “ mihi sequere :

Nos volumus navigare
Ab hinc in Narragoniam
Propter tuam stultitiam.” ^

1 The opening of one of the obscure men’s letters will appeal to any
one somewhat versed in classical Latin :

Lyra Buntschumacherius, ordinis predicatorum theologus Guillermo
Hackineto, qui est theologorum theologissimus, Salutem dicit.

Vos scripsistis mihi ex Anglia de Londino unam longam litteram
pulchre latinisatam, in qua petivistis quod deberem vobis scribere unam
novitatem sive bonam, sive malam, quia estis naturaliter inclinatus ad
audiendum nova: sicut faciunt omnes qui sunt de complexione san-
guinea, et audient. libenter cantilenas musicales, ac in mensa sunt lete
mentis. Ego fui valde letatus, quando accepi vestram litteram sicut
qui invenit unam preciosam margaritam, et ostendi earn dominis meis
Joanni Grocino et Linacro dicens : “ Videte, domini mei, videte, nonne
iste magister noster formalis in latinisando et componendo dictamina
(i.e. compositions), et arte epistolandi ? ” Et juraverunt quod non pos-
sunt similes epistolas componere in arte latinitatis, quamvis sunt poete
greci et latini. Et extulerunt vos super omnes qui sunt in Anglia,
Francia, Germania, et omni natione que sub celo est. , . .

Germany before the Protestant Revolt 5 1

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Political Conditions in Germany: Johnson, Europe in the Six-
teenth Century, pp. 106-128; Henderson, Short History of Ger7uany,
Vol. I, Chapter X, pp. 228-250; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I,
Chapter IX, pp. 288-328; Dyer, Modem Europe, Vol. I, pp. 22-33.

Religious Conditions : Cambridge Moderii History, Vol. I, Chapter
XIX, pp. 653-692 (“ The Eve of the Reformation,” by Henry C. Lea).

Intellectual Conditions: Whitcomb, Source Book of the German
Renaissance. Contains extracts from the writings of the humanists.

Creighton, History of the Papacy, Vol. VI, Chapter I, “ Human-
ism in Germany ” ; Chapter II, “ The Reuchlin Struggle.”

Beard, Martin Luther, Chapter I, “ Political Conditions of the
Empire”; Chapter II, “The Religious Life of Germany”; Chapter
HI, “The Renaissance in Germany.”

Janssen, History of the Ge^-man People, Vols. I, II, and HI (first
half). A very suggestive and readable treatment by a famous Catholic
scholar.

Ranke, History of the Reformatioti in Gemitafiy (an English trans-
lation of the first half of the German original), Vol. I, pp. 85-342. A care-
ful account of the attempts to reform the German constitution before
Luther’s appearance.

Emerton, Desiderius Erasmus. An admirable biography, with
many extracts from Erasmus’ writings. Froude, in his Life and
Letters of Erasmus, gives a loose paraphrase of a number of Erasmus’
letters. Nichols, The Epistles of Erasmus (1901-1904), 2 vols. An
excellent annotated translation of the letters written before 1517.

Strauss, D. F., Ulrich von Hutten, his Life and Times. Translated
from the German (1874) ; a good account of the whole humanistic
movement.

Bezold, Geschichte der deutschen Reformation (Oncken Series), 1890,
pp. 1-259, on Germany before the Protestant Revolt. Fair in spirit,
excellent in scholarship, and well illustrated, but unfortunately gives
no references to the sources.

Egelhaaf, Deutsche Geschichte im sechszeh77te7i fahrhundert bis
zum Augsburger Religiottsfrieden, 2 vols., 1889-1892. A scholarly
Protestant counterblast to some of Janssen’s conclusions.

A. Ref cr-
evices.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

Readmgs in Europea7i History

The sources.

Geiger, Renaissance und Humanisimis in Italien und Deutschlarid
(Oncken Series), 1882. Contains a valuable account of Reuchlin, Eras-
mus, and Hutten, and their forerunners.

Schulte, Die Rugger in Rom, i4gg-ig2j (zur Geschichte des kirch-
lichen Finanzwesens), Vol. I, 1904.

Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, Vol. V, Part I. Broad, suggest-
ive, but not always lucid, treatment.

Dacheux, Un Ref ormateur catholique, Jean Geiler, iqjS-igio (1876).
An account of a famous and influential preacher.

Hasak, Der christlichen Glaube des deutschen Volkes beim Schlusse
des Mittelalters (1868). A remarkable and illuminating collection of
extracts from the popular works of edification before Luther’s tracts
began to appear.

Ulrich von Hutten, Werke, edited by Boecking, 5 vols. A mine
of information for the literary conditions. Hutten’s dialogues ( Ge-
sprdchbilchlein) have been reprinted (Dresden, 1905).

Reuchlin, Briefwechsel, 1875 (edited by Geiger in the Bibliothek
des Stuttgarter Literarischen Vereins, Vol. CXXVI). Also Geiger,
Johann Reuchlin, sein Leben tuid seine Werke, 1871.

Mutianus, Briefwechsel, edited by Gillert, 1890 (also by Krause,
1885). The letters of one of the most important of the German
humanists.

Few will care to make a more careful study of the political condi-
tions and history than can be based on Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte im
Zeitalter der Reformation. The sources are enumerated in Waitz-
Dahlmann, Quellenktmde der deutschen Geschichte, also in the Ca7ti-
bridge Moder>i History, Vol. I, pp. 734 sq.

CHAPTER XXV

MARTIN LUTHER AND HIS REVOLT AGAINST THE CHURCH

I. The Preaching of Indulgences

The archbishop of Mayence arranged with Pope
Leo X in 1515 to conduct the distribution throughout
his vast archbishoprics of Mayence and Magdeburg of
the indulgences granted by the pope. The archbishop
was to have half the contributions made for them, and
the rest of the money was to go to the rebuilding of
the great central shrine of Christendom, St. Peter’s
at Rome.^ This plan was not carried out until 1517.
Extracts from the “Instructions” prepared for those
who were to proclaim the indulgences are given below.
They furnish an official account of the indulgence and,
according to a distinguished Roman Catholic historian,^
they corresponded with the teaching of the Church.

The papal bull which granted the indulgence added
three other graces and privileges, which might be pro-
cured either separately or together with the indulgence.

1 See History of Western Europe, § 126 (opening), and Readings,
Vol. I, pp. 539 sqq.

2 Cardinal Hergenrdther, in his continuation of Hefele’s Concilien-
geschichte, Vol. IX, p. ii. Yet it would seem as if one would get an
exaggerated idea of the value of an indulgence from reading the
“ Instructions,” for they promise “ the complete remission of all sins,”
while the more careful theologians taught that the indulgence only
remitted the penalties which remained after the sinner had received
forgiveness of his guilt through contrition, confession, and absolution.
See History of Western Europe, § 142.

The procla-
mation of
a papal
indulgence
in 1517.

Readings in European History'

239. An
official
account of
indulgences,
taken from
the “ In-
structions ”
issued to
those who
were to pro-
claim them
in Germany.

Conditions
necessary for
receiving
indulgences.

Preachers are ordered “ to commend each to believers
with the greatest care and, in so far as they can,
explain the same.”

The first grace is the complete remission of all sins ; and
nothing greater than this can be named, since man, who
lives in sin and forfeits the favor of God, obtains complete
remission by these means and once more enjoys God’s
favor ; moreover, through this remission of sins the pun-
ishment which one is obliged to undergo in purgatory on
account of the affront to the Divine Majesty is all remitted,
and the pains of purgatory completely blotted out. And
although nothing is precious enough to be given in exchange
for such a grace, — since it is a free gift of God and a grace
beyond price, — yet in order that Christian believers may
be the more easily induced to procure the same, we estab-
lish the following rules, to wit :

In the first place, every one who is contrite in heart, and
has made oral confession, — or at all events has the inten-
tion of confessing at a suitable time, — shall visit at least
the seven churches indicated for this purpose, to wit, those
in which the papal arms are displayed, and in each church
shall say five paternosters and five Ave Marias in honor of
the five wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby our sal-
vation is won, or one Miserere, which psalm is particularly
well adapted for obtaining forgiveness of sins.

Sick or otherwise incapacitated persons shall visit with
the same devotion and prayers, the seven altars, which the
commissioners and subcommissioners shall have erected in
the church where the cross shall be raised, and on which
they shall have affixed the papal arms.

Where, however, persons are found so weak that they can-
not conveniently come to such a church, then shall their
confessor or penitentiary cause an altar to be brought to a
convenient place approved by him. And where such per-
sons visit this place and offer up their prayers near the altar
or before it, they shall deserve the indulgence as though
they had visited the seven churches. . . .

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 5 5

Respecting, now, the contribution to the chest, for the
building of the said church of the chief of the apostles, the
penitentiaries and confessors, after they have explained to
those making confession the full remission and privileges,
shall ask of them for how much money or other temporal
goods they would conscientiously go without the said most
complete remission and privileges ; and this shall be done
in order that hereafter they may be brought the more easily
to contribute. And because the conditions and occupations
of men are so manifold and diverse that we cannot consider
them individually, and impose specific rates accordingly, we
have therefore concluded that the rates should be determined
according to the recognized classes of persons.

Kings and queens and their offspring, archbishops and
bishops, and other great rulers, provided they seek the
places where the cross is raised, or otherwise present them-
selves, shall pay at least five and twenty Rhenish guilders
in gold. Abbots and the great prelates of cathedral churches,
counts, barons, and others of the higher nobility, together
with their consorts, shall pay for each letter of indulgence
ten such guilders. Other lesser prelates and nobles, as also
the rectors of celebrated places, and all others who, either
from permanent incomes or merchandise, or otherwise, enjoy
a total yearly revenue of five hundred gold guilders, shall
pay six such guilders. Other citizens and tradespeople and
artisans, who have individual incomes and families of their
own, shall pay one such guilder ; those of less means, only
a half. ...

All other persons are confided to the discretion of the
confessors and penitentiaries, who should have ever in view
the advancement of this building, and should urge their
penitents to a free contribution, but should let no one go
away without some portion of grace, because the happiness
of Christian believers is here concerned not less than the
interests of the building. And those that have no money
shall supply their contribution with prayer and fasting ; for
the kingdom of heaven should be open to the poor not less
than to the rich. . . .

Contributions
made for
indulgences.

The very
poor to be
excused from
making a
contribution.

Readings in EiLwpean History

Confessional
letters (sum-
marized).

Participation
in the
spiritual
treasures of
the Church.

Indulgences
for the dead
in purgatory.

[The second signal grace is a “ confessional letter,” that
is, a permit to choose any qualified confessor, even a men-
dicant friar, instead of one’s parish priest or other regular
confessor. Moreover the confessor chosen shall have power
to absolve those holding the confessional permits in cases
when the ordinary confessor would be powerless, — for
example, for offenses which are usually “ reserved ” for con-
sideration by the pope.]

The third most important grace is the participation in
all the possessions of the Church universal ; which consists
herein, that contributors toward the said building, together
with their deceased relatives, who have departed this world
in a state of grace, shall from now on, and for eternity,
be partakers in all petitions, intercessions, alms, fastings,
prayers, in each and every pilgrimage, even those to the
Holy Land; furthermore, in the stations at Rome, in
masses, canonical hours, flagellations, and all other spirit-
ual goods which have been, or shall be, brought forth by the
universal, most holy Church militant or by any of its mem-
bers. Believers who purchase confessional letters may also
become participants in all these things. Preachers and con-
fessors must insist with great perseverance upon these advan-
tages, and persuade believers not to neglect to acquire these
benefits along with their confessional letter.

We also declare that in order to obtain these two most
important graces, it is not necessary to make confession, or
to visit the churches and altars, but merely to procure the
confessional letter. . , .

The fourth distinctive grace is for those souls which are
in purgatory, and is the complete remission of all sins, which
remission the pope brings to pass through his intercession,
to the advantage of said souls, in this wise : that the same
contribution shall be placed in the chest by a living person
as one would make for himself. It is our wish, however,
that our subcommissioners should modify the regulations
regarding contributions of this kind which are given for the
dead, and that they should use their judgment in all other
cases, where, in their opinion, modifications are desirable.

Martin LtUher and his Revolt against the Chmxh 5 7

It is, furthermore, not necessary that the persons who
place their contributions in the chest for the dead should be
contrite in heart and have orally confessed, since this grace
is based simply on the state of grace in which the dead
departed, and on the contribution of the living, as is evident
from the text of the bull. Moreover preachers shall exert
themselves to give this grace the widest publicity, since
through the same, help will surely come to departed souls,
and the construction of the church of St Peter will be abun-
dantly promoted at the same time. . . .

II. Luther’s Ninety-five Theses concerning
Indulgences (1517)

Luther did not intend his theses to be a complete and Purpose of
final declaration of his beliefs in regard to salvation. He drTitfng his
had been deeply disturbed by the talk that he heard theses,
about indulgences, the importance of which appeared to
him to be grossly overrated. The loud praise of them
he thought certain to blind the great body of Christians
to more fundamental matters. So with the hope of
bringing an ill-understood question to the attention of
university men, he hastily drafted in Latin certain prop-
ositions involving the chief points ; these he posted up,
as was the custom, where they might catch the eye of
those interested.

He was himself by no means certain of his conclu-
sions, for he said later of the theses : “ There is much in
them concerning which I am doubtful ; much else that I
do not understand ; other things of which I am not per-
suaded, and nothing that I stubbornly adhere to ; for I
submit everything to Holy Church and her judgment.'’

In a letter to Leo X, written six months after the post-
ing of the theses, he expresses his surprise and regret

Readings in European History

240. Ex-
amples of
Luther’s
ninety-five
theses.

Meaning of
poenitentia
defined.

that they should have been so widely circulated, for they
were “somewhat obscurely expressed, as was the cus-
tom in such cases,” so that the defender could not be
easily driven into a corner. Had he foreseen their gen-
eral diffusion, he would have tried to be clearer. Yet
there is no doubt that they really expressed his general
convictions, which he did not realize at that time were
in any way opposed to the teachings of the Catholic
Church.

In the desire and with the purpose of elucidating the
truth, a disputation will be held on the underwritten propo-
sitions at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend
Father Martin Luther, monk of the order of St. Augustine,
Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer
in the same at that place. He therefore asks those who can-
not be present and discuss the subject with us orally to do
so by letter in their absence. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.

1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying “Repent
ye S^poejiitentiam agite\ etc., intended that the whole life
of believers should be penitence \_poenitentia\

2. This word cannot be understood as sacramental pen-
ance, that is, the confession and satisfaction which are per-
formed under the ministry of priests.

3. It does not, on the other hand, refer solely to inward
penitence ; nay, such inward penitence is naught, unless it
outwardly produces various mortifications of the flesh.

d The theologians of Luther’s time appear to have used the same
word, poeniteniia, for both penitence and penance. The words of Christ,
“Repent ye,” are translated in the Vulgate poenitentiam agite, which is
good Latin for “ Be sorry,” but looked to a careless reader of Luther’s
time like “ Do ye penance.” Erasmus notices this misapprehension in
his edition of the New Testament, published the year before Luther’s
theses.

Martm Luther and his Revolt agamst the Chitrch 59

4. The penalty [for sin] must thus continue as long as
the hatred of self — that is, true inward penitence ; namely,
till our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

5. The pope has neither the will nor the power to remit
any penalties except those which he has imposed by his own
authority, or by that of the canons.

6. The pope has no power to remit any guilt, except by
declaring and warranting it to have been remitted by God ;
or at most by remitting cases reserved for himself ; in which
cases, if his power were despised, guilt would certainly re-
main.

7. Certainly God remits no man’s guilt without at the
same time subjecting him, humbled in all things, to the
authority of his representative, the priest.

20. Therefore the pope, when he speaks of the plenary
remission of all penalties, does not mean really of all, but
only of those imposed by himself.

21. Thus those preachers of indulgences are in error who
say that by the indulgences of the pope a man is freed and
saved from all punishment.

23. If any entire remission of all penalties can be granted
to any one, it is certain that it is granted to none but the
most perfect, — that is, to very few.

27. They preach man [rather than God] who say that the
soul flies out of purgatory as soon as the money rattles in
the chest,

28. It is certain that, when the money rattles in the chest,
avarice and gain may be increased, but the effect of the
intercession of the Church depends on the will of God alone.

39. It is a very difficult thing, even for the most learned
theologians, to exalt at the same time, in the eyes of the
people, the ample effect of pardons and the necessity of true
contrition.

Wrong
notions of
the nature of
indulgences.

Readings in European History

The treasures
of the Church.

40. True contrition seeks and loves punishment, while the
ampleness of pardons relaxes it and causes men to hate it,
or at least gives occasion for them to do so.

43. Christians should be taught that he who gives to a
poor man, or lends to a needy man, does better than if he
bought pardons.

44. Because by works of charity, charity increases and
the man becomes better, while by means of pardons he does
not become better, but only freer from punishment.

50. Christians should be taught that, if the pope were
acquainted with the exactions of the preachers of pardons,
he would prefer that the basilica of St. Peter should be burnt
to ashes rather than that it should be built up with the skin,
flesh, and bones of his sheep.

51. Christians should be taught that as it would be the
duty, so it would be the wish of the pope even to sell, if
necessary, the basilica of St. Peter, as well as to give of his
own money to very many of those from whom the preachers
of pardons extract money.

56. The treasures of the Church,^ whence the pope grants
indulgences, are neither sufficiently discussed nor understood
among the people of Christ.

57. It is clear that they are at least not temporal treas-
ures, for these are not so readily lavished, but only accumu-
lated, by many of the preachers.

62. The true treasure of the Church is the holy gospel of
the glory and grace of God.

63. This treasure, however, is naturally most hateful,
because it makes the first to be last ;

64. While the treasure of indulgences is naturally most
acceptable, because it makes the last to be first.

1 See History of Western Europe, § 136 (end).

Martm Ltither a7id his Revolt against the Chnreh 6i

81. This license in the preaching of pardons makes it no
easy thing, even for learned men, to protect the reverence
due to the pope against the calumnies, or, at all events, the
keen questionings of the laity.

82. As, for instance : Why does not the pope empty pur-
gatory for the sake of his most holy charity and of the
supreme necessity of souls, — this being the most just of all
reasons, — if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the
sake of that most fatal thing, money, to be spent on build-
ing a basilica, — this being a very slight reason ?

86. Again : Why does not the pope, whose riches are at
this day more ample than those of Croesus, build the basilica
of St. Peter with his own money rather than with that of poor
believers ?

88. Again : What greater good could the Church receive
than if the pope were to bestow these remissions and partici-
pations a hundred times a day, instead of once, as he does
now, on any one of the faithful ?

90. To repress these scruples and arguments of the laity
by force alone, and not to solve them by giving reasons, is
to expose the Church and the pope to the ridicule of their
enemies, and to make Christian men unhappy.

91. If then pardons were preached according to the spirit
and wish of the pope, all these questions would be solved
with ease ; nay, would not exist.

III. Letter of Warning to Luther from one of
Erasmus’ Friends

The great Erasmus and his friends took some inter-
est in Luther at first, although many of them were
later alienated by his rashness and by certain of his
doctrines.^ The following letter from a distinguished

^ For the attitude of Erasmus toward Luther three years later, see
below, p. 89.

Keen ques
tionings of
the laity.

241.> Letter
of warning
to Luther
from Capito.

62 Readings in European History

humanist, Capito, written from Basel, September 4,
1518, clearly shows the attitude of Erasmus and his
circle.

Greeting :

I replied from Strasburg to the letter that you kindly
wrote to me recently, and I added at the same time Eras-
mus’ opinion of you, and described his frank and gratifying
admiration of your discussion of indulgences. In the mean-
time I have seen your sermon on Penitence and another on
Indulgences and Faith, both in the most obvious opposition
to the received customs of our time. I was astounded, in
my friendly solicitude, to see you exposing your unprotected
body to the dense array of the enemy, even if you do appear
to be fully equipped with the arms of truth. You will, I
much fear, be attacked with other weapons, and the danger
is that the question will be settled by force.

If you will deign to lend an ear to the counsels of one
who has had much experience in these matters, I would
warn you to adopt the tactics of Sertorius. Believe me, you
can undermine gradually what you can never overthrow by
force. Your enemies hold a citadel which, as you see, is
protected on every side. Behind a triple line of defense
and beyond the range of missiles they are snoring peace-
fully. Their threefold safety lies in the authority of the
pope (that is, of the Church universal), in the potent arm of
the despots, and in the persistent support of the universities.

Surely you will never succeed in breaking this diabol-
ically stout rope. It would need another Alexander to cut
this Gordian knot with the sword ; the problem is how to
do it by mere skill or reason. Simple, pious folk meekly
follow the beck and nod of our counterfeit Church. The
more thoughtful have had their spirit quenched by its
tyranny. As for us, the theologians, who loudly proclaim
our special sanctity and knowledge of Christ, we constantly
compromise his cause by our arrogance. We take advan-
tage of all the abuses in religion and under the guise of
piety we decently guard our own interests.

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Chureh 63

Consequently I beg of you, lest this noble enterprise of
yours come to naught, to resort to a little dissimulation, so
that you may get your hook well fixed in your reader before
he suspects your object. The apostles followed this plan,
never pressing anything openly and always maintaining a
dignified and kindly bearing. St. Paul resorts to similar de-
vices in his Epistle to the Romans. How dexterously he
maneuvers in order to keep their favor ! He advances, with-
draws, dissimulates, shows the divine treasure from afar,
but carefully veils it. In short, he so skillfully balances his
presentation that he neither irritates nor wearies his readers.
The Acts of the Apostles abound with examples of his
skill. . .

Thus by indirect means important results may be gained.
So I would have you always keep open a safe exit by which
you can escape when in danger, — even if but too hard
pressed in discussion.

Recently I received a book by Silvester Prierius,^ which
he has absurdly enough directed against your treatment of
indulgences. If you are going to reply, I would have you
do so in prudent language and so reflect the true spirit of
Christ as he appears in the Gospels. You should dwell upon
the origin and growth of our religion, the original customs,
the nature of hardened error, and the varying decrees of
popes and councils, so that your presentation may be visibly
confirmed as coming directly from the fountain of truth.

Then remember that certain kinds of nonsense are fre-
quently better dispelled by a laugh than by laborious effort.
Be very careful withal not to attack the pope himself, but
lay all the blame on Prierius for his impudent adulation,
and for suggesting motives unworthy of the papal dignity,
simply in the interest of his own belly. Oppose yourself to

1 Capito here recalls, for Luther’s guidance, the stratagem of Paul,
who, when surrounded by a hostile multitude, brought up the question
of the resurrection, and so set the Pharisees and Sadducees by the ears
and gained the support of the former (Acts xxiii. 6-9).

2 Prierius was connected with the papal court, and was the first to
attack Luther’s theses in a very irritating pamphlet.

Readmgs m Euro^eaji History

242. Eck’s
report to
Hochstraten
concerning
the Leipzig
disputation.

the unblushing sycophants, as if you were endeavoring to
cut off the opportunity for evil. Where, as you write, you
seem to see a chance for them to reply, block the way, so
that they cannot reach you to strike back.

But whither am I being carried by the zeal of friendship,
as if I were your master and laying down rules for you ?
Condone my offense, I beg of you. You are not without
helpers: Andreas Carlstadt, George Spalatin, John Egranus,
and Philip Melanchthon, — the latter a miracle of ability, —
to whom, if you communicate your plans, you will publish
nothing weak or which can be criticised.

But why all this long message from me, except perhaps
that it clearly proves my sincere interest in you. . . .

Adieu.

Yours,

Basel, September 4, 1518.

Whom you will recognize.

IV. The Disputation at Leipzig (1519)

Eck, Luther’s opponent in the Leipzig disputation,
gives a good brief account of Luther’s conduct in the
affair in a letter to Hochstraten, the inquisitor general.^
Toward two years had elapsed since the posting up of
the theses, and it will be readily seen from Eck’s letter
that Luther had made a good deal of progress on his
way toward revolt.

It has not escaped you, reverend Father, in what manner
I have thus far opposed the rash men of Wittenberg, who
despise all the teachers of four hundred years, however
saintly and learned, and disseminate many false and erro-
neous things among the people, especially the powerful
leader in this uproar, who seduces and corrupts the com-
mon people through publications in our language.

1 See above, p. 46.

Martin Luther a7id his Revolt against the CJmrcJL 65

We have recently held a disputation at Leipzig, before a
great audience of most learned men, coming together from
all parts, by which (praise, honor, and glory to God !) the
reputation of the Wittenberg party has been very much les-
sened even among the common people, while among the
learned it is for the most part quite gone. You should have
heard the rashness of the men, how blind they are and how
undaunted in their wickedness.

Luther denies that Peter was the chief of the apostles ; he
declares that ecclesiastical obedience is not of divine right,
but that it was brought in by human appointment or that
of the emperor. He denies that the Church was built upon
Peter : “ Upon this rock,” etc. And though I quoted to him
Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory, Cyprian, Chrysostom,
Leo and Bernard, with Theophilus, he contradicted them all
without a blush ; and said that he would stand alone against
a thousand, though supported by no other, because Christ
only is the foundation of the Church, for other foundation
can no man lay. I demolished that by quoting Revelations
xii, about the twelve foundations, whereupon he defended
the Greeks and schismatics, saying that even if they are not
under obedience to the pope, still they are saved.

Concerning the tenets of the Bohemians, he said that
some of those teachings condemned in the council of Con-
stance are most Christian and evangelical ; by which rash
error he frightened away and caused to desert him many
who before were his supporters.

Among other things, when I pressed upon him, “ If the
power of the pope is only of human right and by the con-
sent of believers, whence comes your monk’s costume that
you wear .? Whence have you the power of preaching and
of hearing the confessions of your parishioners,” etc., he
replied that he wished there were no order of mendicants,
and said many other scandalous and absurd things : that a
council, because they are men, can err ; that it is not proved
from sacred Scripture that there is a purgatory, etc., — all
this you will see by reading our disputation, since it was
written down by most faithful notaries. . . .

Readings in European History

V. Luther on Good Works

Luther emphasized so constantly and fervently salva-
tion through simple faith in God’s promises, and spoke
so lightly of “good works,” such as fasts, pilgrimages,
attendance at masses, alms, gifts to the Church, etc.,
that his opponents declared that he cared not how a
man acted if only he had faith. Luther explains his
position very clearly in the following passages from a
little treatise On Good Works, which he wrote in Ger-
man early in 1520 and dedicated to his prince, the
elector of Saxony.

243. Lu-
ther’s idea of
good works
and justifi-
cation by
faith.

The first, highest, and noblest of all good works is to
believe in Christ, as he himself answered in John, chap-
ter vi, when the Jews asked him, “ What must we do, that
we may work the works of God?” “Jesus answered and
said unto them. This is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent.” Now when we hear this, or
preach it to others, we run over it lightly, regarding it as a
very simple and easy thing, when we should stop long over
it and ponder it well ; for all works go back to this and
receive all their goodness from it, as one might receive a
fief from his lord. We must paint this in strong colors if
every one is to see it clearly.

We find many who pray, fast, endow churches and monas-
teries, and do this, that, and the other, — who, in short,
lead a good life before men ; who, if you ask them whether
they are sure that what they are doing is pleasing to God,
say no, they know not, or are doubtful. Among these are
some famous and learned men, who claim that it is not
necessary to be sure that we are pleasing to God and who
do nothing except urge good works. But we must see that
the very same works done without faith are altogether dead
and as nothing, for as your conscience stands toward God
and believes in him, even so shall it be with your works.

Martin Luther a7id his Revolt against the Church 67

which proceed from your faith. Now when there is no faith
or good conscience toward God, works are headless and
have no life or goodness. So it comes about that when I
place faith so high and reject such unbelieving works, they
accuse me of forbidding good works altogether, although I
gladly extol the good works of faith.

If you ask my critics if they regard as good works labor-
ing at one’s trade, coming and going, eating, drinking, and
sleeping, arid all the other acts that help nourish the body
or are generally useful, and whether they believe that God
is pleased by such works, you will find that they say no,
and limit good works so narrowly that they must consist
in praying in church, fasting, or giving alms ; other things
they regard as actions which God does not esteem. By
this damnable want of faith they reduce and diminish the
service of God, whom all serve, who believe in him, in all
that they say or think. And this the Preacher teaches, say-
ing, “ Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy
wine with a merry heart; for God hath already accepted
thy works. Let thy garments be always white ; and let not
thy head lack ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom
thou lovest all the days of the life of. thy vanity, which he
hath given thee under the sun.” ^ To keep our garments
white is to have all our works good, whatever they may be,
without any distinction. And they will be white when we
confidently believe that they are pleasing to God. . . .

We can understand this whole matter by an obvious
human example. When husband and wife are fond of one
another and live together in love and in confidence in one
another, and each believes truly in the other, who shall
teach them how they should act, what they should do or
leave undone, say or not say, think or not think ? Their
own insight tells them all that need be, and more too.
There is no distinction in their “works” for one another.
They do the long, hard, and heavy tasks as willingly as the
slight and easy things, and moreover they act with glad.

Luther
criticises the
narrow con-
ception of
“good
works.”

1 Eccles. ix. 7-9.

Ulrich von
Hutten
attacks the
clergy.

68 Readings in Enropean History

peaceful, and secure hearts and are altogether free and
unconstrained. But when doubt comes they begin to ask
what is best, and begin to distinguish between their acts in
order to gain the other’s favor, and go about with troubled
and heavy hearts, perhaps well-nigh in despair or driven to
downright desperation.

So the Christian who lives in confidence toward God
knows what things he should do, and does all gladly and
freely, not with a view to accumulating merit and good
works, but because it is his great joy to please God and tp
serve him without thought of reward, contented if he but do
God’s will.^ On the contrary, he who is not at one with
God, or is in doubt, will begin to be anxious how he may
satisfy God and justify himself by his works. He runs off
on a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella, to Rome, to
Jerusalem, — here, there, anywhere; prays to St. Bridget,
or some other saint, fasts this day and that, confesses here
and confesses there, asks this man and that, but finds no
peace.

VI. Ulrich von Hutten’s Appeal to German
Patriotism

Ulrich von Hutten had returned from a sojourn in
Italy filled with love and enthusiasm for his own German
people and with dislike for the Italians, especially for the
Roman curia. He probably knew little about the Leip-
zig disputation, and had no interest, in any case, in what
the monks and theologians, whom he had just been
making sport of in the Letters of ObsciLi^e Men^ might
be saying about indulgences and purgatory. He busied

^ This idea of “The Freedom of the Christian Man” is the subject
of one of Luther’s most celebrated tracts, written a few months later
than these passages. It is translated in Wace and Buchheim, Luther's
Prunary Works, pp. 104 sq.

2 See above, pp. 46 sqq.

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 69

himself writing witty dialogues in Latin, exposing the
iniquities of the clergy, and attacking the Roman curia
in the name of German liberty and independence.

His first dialogue, Fever the First, is a satire on the
luxurious lives of the clergy, suggested by what he saw
of the pope’s representative, Cardinal Cajetan, at the
diet of Augsburg in 1518. Hutten wants to get rid of
Fever, and suggests various places where he might be
comfortable, — for example, with the cardinal, who takes
his ease on silken couches and dines off silver and gold.
Fever objects to Cajetan on various grounds, but agrees
finally to try a new benefice broker who has just arrived
from Rome, — a nice man, who drinks much wine and
sorely misses asparagus in winter and hates physicians,
whom Fever also dislikes.

Ere long Fever puts in a second appearance and begs
to be admitted, since he finds it very chilly on the door-
step. Hutten refuses to let him in, but begins to ply
him with questions. Finally he asks :

What is the reason for the depraved lives among the
priests ?

Fever. Idleness and its fostering mother. Riches.

Hutten. But if Germany should take counsel, reduce their
wealth, order them to cultivate the fields as others do and
earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, should not we
then have good priests ? . . . Tell me, do you not think the
Germans will do this some time ?

Fever. Why should they not ?

Hutten. As soon as possible ?

Fever. Pretty soon, when they cannot longer abide so
many thousand parsons, an idle and useless crowd for the
most part. Let a time of scarcity come, then hard-working
men will be filled with wrath to see these lazy, shameless
fellows consuming in luxury what belongs to others.

Hutten’s
Fever the
First.

244. Hut-
ten’s Fever
the Second.

Readings ui Europea7i History

244a. Hut-
ten’s Vadis-
cus, or the
Roman
Trinity.^

In another dialogue, published early in 1520, Hutten
meets a friend, Ernhold, in Mayence, and they talk over
public affairs. Ernhold asks him what he is irritated
about.

Hutten. Because five books of the writings of the histo-
rian Tacitus were recently printed at Rome, and when I
took them to one of our publishers he declared that he dare
not reprint them on account of a bull of Leo X which for-
bade, in the interests of the Roman printer, that any one
should issue the work again within ten years.

Ertihold. Then we Germans cannot read the book for ten
years, since works printed in Rome rarely reach Germany ?

Hutten. This irritates me especially, and I am vexed
more and more every day to see how our people refuse to
leave their superstitions, and continue to think that such a
bull should be noticed, which prevents us from advancing
our studies and sharpening our wits. When the printer said
that if he did as I wished and pleased the scholars he would
be immediately excommunicated, I asked him if, should the
pope forbid us Germans, under pain of his curse, to have
vineyards or make money, we should drink water and throw
away our gold. He replied that we should not. . . . “ But
you,” I said, “ are afraid to let the Germans have Tacitus,
when he merits our especial gratitude for having spoken
more highly of our people than any other of the ancient
writers ? ” I should have persuaded him had not a papal
legate, who is about here now, roused his apprehensions,
telling him that it would be a terrible sin to print the book
and that Leo would be very angry if he did so. I was quite
excusably enraged at the outcome of the affair.

1 The dialogue secures its name from Hutten’s contention that every-
thing went by threes in Rome. Three things are carried away from
Rome : a bad conscience, a weak stomach, and empty words ; three
things disturb the Romans : harmony among the German princes, intel-
ligence among the people, and a recognition of the frauds the Romans
perpetrate ; three things very few Romans believe : the immortality of
the soul, the communion of saints, and the punishments of hell ; etc.

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 7 1

Er7ihold. Naturally ; and I think there are plenty of
other things we suffer by : settling for archbishops’ palli-
ums, and paying annates, pensions, and six hundred other
exactions. When will the Romans moderate their demands?
I fear that we Germans will not stand them much longer,
for matters are getting worse and worse, and there is no end
to their robbery and extortions.

Hutten. As you well say, unless they are more reasonable
and show some restraint in their mode of life, this nation of
ours will at last have its eyes opened. It will see how mis-
erably it has been misled and swindled, and will recognize
the deceptions which have been employed to delude a free
people and bring into contempt a brave and strong nation
with its noble princes. I already notice that many are begin-
ning to talk freely and act as if we were about to cast off
this yoke.

Ernhold. God grant that we may soon cease to be the
victims of foreigners ! ^

The above was written probably in 1519, before Hut-
ten had become interested in Luther, and shows how the
Germans might have been led to revolt against the papal
supremacy on other than religious grounds. Early in
1520 Hutten was attracted by Luther’s utterances and
wrote a letter to him beginning “Long live liberty,” and
offering him the protection of the German knights. He
then began translating his own earlier dialogues into Ger-
man, and added others of a more serious nature, in which
he introduced Luther. In September, 1520, he appealed
to some of the German princes, urging them to reduce
the exactions of the curia. His letter to the elector of
Saxony is of the greatest interest, and its description of

1 Some idea of Hutten’s dialogue called “The Onlookers,” may be
obtained from the extract given by Whitcomb, Source Book of the Ger-
ma7i Renaissance, pp. 62 sq.

Hutten
becomes
interested
in Luther.

Readings in European History

245. Hutten
appeals to
the elector
of Saxony.

the economic forces then at work in Germany may prof-
itably be compared with Luther’s treatment of the same
matters in his Address to the German Nobility.

. . . We see that there is no gold and almost no silver in
our German land. What little may perhaps be left is drawn
away daily by the new schemes invented by the council of
the most holy members of the Roman curia. What is thus
squeezed out of us is put to the most shameful uses. Would
you know, dear Germans, what employment I have myself
seen that they make at Rome of our money ? It does not
lie idle !

Leo the Tenth gives a part of it to his nephews and rela-
tives (these are so numerous that there is a proverb at
Rome, “As thick as Leo’s relations”). A portion is con-
sumed by a host of most reverend cardinals (of which the
holy father created no less than one and thirty in a single
day), as well as in supporting innumerable referendaries,
auditors, prothonotaries, abbreviators, apostolic secretaries,
chamberlains, and a variety of officials forming the elite of
the great head church.

These in turn draw after them, at untold expense, copyists,
beadles, messengers, servants, scullions, mule drivers, grooms,
and an innumerable army of prostitutes and of the most de-
graded followers. They maintain dogs, horses, monkeys,
long-tailed apes, and many more such creatures for their
pleasure. They construct houses all of marble. They have
precious stones, are clothed in purple and fine linen, and
dine sumptuously, frivolously indulging themselves in every
species of luxury. In short, a vast number of the worst of
men are supported in Rome in idle indulgence by means of
our money. . . .

Does not your Grace now clearly perceive how many bold
robbers, how many cunning hypocrites, are engaged con-
stantly in committing the greatest crimes under cover of the
monk’s cowl, and how many crafty hawks feign the simplicity
of doves, and how many ravening wolves simulate the inno-
cence of lambs ? And although there be a few truly pious

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the CJuLrch 73

among them, even they cling to superstition, and pervert the
law of life which Christ laid down for us.

Now if all these who devastate Germany, and continue to
devour everything, might once be driven out, and an end
made of the unbridled plundering, swindling, and deception
with which the Romans have overwhelmed us, we should
again have gold and silver in sufficiency, and should be able
to keep it.

And then this money, in such quantities as might be avail-
able, might be put to better uses, as, for example : to put on
foot great armaments and extend the boundaries of the
empire; also to conquer the Turks, if this seems desirable ;
to enable many who, because of poverty, now steal and rob,
to earn honestly their living once more ; and to give to those
who otherwise must starve contributions from the state to
mitigate their need ; to help scholars, and to advance the
study of the arts and sciences and of good literature ; above
all, to make it possible that every virtue receive its reward,
want be relieved at home, indolence banished, and deceit
killed.

Then, too, the Bohemians, when they come to know this,
will make common cause with us ; for it was material obstacles
alone that kept them back, in earlier times, from dealing
with the avarice of their priests. The Greeks would do the
same, for they, unable to bear the Romish tyranny, have for
a long time, at the instigation of the popes, been regarded
as heretics. •

The Russians would also become Christians and join us,
- — they who, when recently they proposed to embrace Chris-
tianity, were repelled by the demand of his Holiness for a
yearly tribute to be levied upon them of four hundred thou-
sand ducats. Even the Turks would thereby hate us less ;
and no heathen, as formerly, would have occasion to molest
us. For up to the present day the shameful lives of the
heads of the Church have made the name of Christian hate-
ful to all strangers.

Ebernburg, September ii, 1520.

Readings in EiLVopean History

Luther’s
Address to
the German
Nobility.

246. Luther
defends the
right of the
secular
rulers to
reform the
Church.

VII. Luther’s “ Address^ to the German
Nobility ” (1520)

Not long after the disputation at Leipzig, Luther began,
as we have seen, to attract the attention of Hutten and
other German knights, especially Franz von Sickingen,
who offered to protect him if he was in danger. This led
Luther, who heard that the pope was about to excom-
municate him for his protests against the current teach-
ing and practices of the Church, to appeal to the German
rulers, with the hope that they might carry out the reforms
which the pope and prelates seemed bent on opposing.
No English translation can do justice to the vigor of
Luther’s German, but some notion of the contents of the
address may be had from the following extracts.

Dr. Martiti Luther., to his Most Serene and Mighty Imperial

Majesty, and to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation :

The grace and might of God be with you, Most Serene
Majesty ! And you, most gracious and well-beloved lords !

It is not out of mere arrogance and perversity that I, one
poor, insignificant man, have taken it upon me to address
your lordships. The distress and misery which oppress all
ranks of Christendom, especially in Germany, have moved
not me alone, but everybody, to @ry aloud for help ; this it
is that now compels me to cry out and call upon God to
send down his spirit upon some one who shall reach out a
hand to this wretched people. Councils have often put for-
ward some remedy, which has always been promptly frus-
trated by the cunning of certain men, so that the evils have
only grown worse ; which malice and wickedness I now
intend — God helping me ! — to expose, so that, being known,
they may cease to work such hindrance and injury. God has
given us a young and noble sovereign^ for our leader, thereby

1 Charles V had just been elected emperor. Luther was soon to
learn how hopeless it was to appeal to him. See below, pp. 83 sqq.

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 75

awakening fresh hopes in many hearts ; it is our part to do
what we can to aid him and to make good use of the oppor-
tunity and of his gracious favor.

The Romanists have with great dexterity built themselves
about with three walls, which hitherto have protected them
against reform ; and thereby is Christianity fearfully fallen.

In the first place, when the temporal power has pressed
them hard, they have affirmed and maintained that the tem-
poral power has no jurisdiction over them, — that, on the con-
trary, the spiritual is above the temporal.

Secondly, when it was proposed to admonish them from
the Holy Scriptures they said, “ It beseejns no one but the pope
to interpret the Scriptures."

And, thirdly, when they were threatened with a council,
they invented the idea that no 07ie but the pope can call a
council.

Thus have they secretly stolen our three rods, that they
may go unpunished ; and intrenched themselves safely behind
these three walls in order to carry on all the knavery and
wickedness that we now see.

And whenever they have been compelled to call a council,
they have made it of no avail, by binding the princes before-
hand with an oath to let them alone. Besides this they have
given the pope full power over the ordering of the council,
so that it is all one, whether we have many councils or no
councils, for in any case they deceive us with pretenses and
false tricks, so grievously do the Romanists tremble for their
skins before a true, free council; and thus they have over-
awed kings and princes, so that these believe that they would
be offending God if they refused to believe in all their knavish
tricks.

Now may God help us, and give us one of those trumpets
that overthrew the walls of Jericho, so that we may also
blow down these walls of straw and paper, and that we may
regain possession of our Christian rods for the chastisement
of sin, and expose the craft and deceit of the devil ; thus
may we amend ourselves by punishment and again obtain
God’s favor.

The “ three
walls ” of the
Romanists.

Fruitlessness
of reform
through
councils
controlled
by the pope.

Readings in European History

The first
wall: the
fiction of a
priestly caste.

The indelible
characters.

Let us, in the first place, attack the first wall.

It has been discovered that the pope, bishops, priests,
and monks should be called the “ spiritual estate,” while
princes, lords, artisans, and peasants form the “ temporal
estate,” — a very fine hypocritical invention. But let no one
be made afraid by it ; and that for this reason : All Christians
are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference
among us, save of office alone. As St. Paul says (i Cor. xii),
we are all one body, though each member has its own work
to do, whereby it may serve the others. This is because we
have one baptism, one gospel, one faith, and are all Christians
alike ; for baptism, gospel, and faith, these alone make
spiritual and Christian folk. . . .

Therefore a priest should be nothing in Christendom but
a functionary. So long as he holds his office he takes pre-
cedence ; if he is deprived of it, he is but a peasant or a
burgher, like the rest. Therefore a priest is verily no priest
when he is deprived of his office. But now they have invented
their “ indelible characters,” and pretend that a priest after
deprivation is still something different from a simple layman.
They even imagine that a priest can never be anything but a
priest, — that is, that he can never become a layman again.
But all this is nothing but mere talk and ordinance of human
invention.

We see then that those we call churchmen, be they priests,
bishops, or popes, are not set apart from or above other
Christians, except in so far as they have to do with the word
of God and the sacraments, for that is their calling and office.
And moreover the temporal authorities wield the sword and
the rod to chastise the wicked and protect the good. A
cobbler, a smith, a peasant — every man has his own calling
and office, just like the consecrated priests and bishops ;
and every one in his office or calling must help and serve
the rest, so that all may work together for the common good,
as the various members of the body all serve each other.

See now what sort of a Christian doctrine is this, —that
the temporal power is not above the spiritual, an'd may not
punish it. That is like saying the hand shall do nothing to

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Chiuxh 77

help, however grievously the eye may suffer. Is it not
unnatural, not to say unchristian, that one member may not
help another, even to shield it from destruction ? Nay, the
nobler the member, the more the others are bound to help it.
Therefore I say, forasmuch as the temporal power has been
ordained by God for the chastisement of the wicked and the
protection of the good, therefore we must let it exercise its
functions, unhampered, throughout the whole Christian body
without respect of persons, whether it strikes popes, bishops,
priests, monks, nuns, or whatever. . . .

It must indeed have been the archfiend himself who said,
as we read in the canon law, “ Were the pope so perniciously
wicked as to be dragging souls in crowds to the devil, yet he
could not be deposed.” ^ This is the accursed, devilish foun-
dation on which they build at Rome, and think the whole
world may go to the devil rather than that they should be
opposed in their knavery. If a man w^ere to escape punish-
ment simply because he was above his fellows, then no
Christian might punish another, since Christ has commanded
that each of us esteem himself the lowest and humblest of
all (Matt, xviii. 4 ; Luke ix. 48).

The second wall is even more flimsy and tottering than
the first, — namely, the claim that they alone are masters of
the Scriptures. Although they learn nothing in them all
their life long, they assume the sole authority, juggle impu-
dently with empty words, saying the pope cannot err, be he
pious or wicked ; albeit they cannot show so much as a
single letter in proof of it. That is why the canon law

1 This is the substance of a passage attributed to St. Boniface, the
apostle to the Germans, and included by Gratian in his Decretuni (Prima
Pars, Dist. XL, c. 6 : Si papa). “ If indeed the pope be found neglect-
ing his own and his brethren’s salvation ; lax and remiss in his duties,
and silent as to the good which most concerns himself and all ; and
should he, moreover, hell’s chief slave, be dragging after him innumer-
able hosts and peoples to suffer manifold and eternal pains, — yet may
no mortal presume to reprove him, for he is set as judge over all, and
is judged by none, — unless mayhap he be taken straying from the way
of faith.” Luther knew the canon law well enough to use it as a weapon
against his opponents.

The second
wall : the ex-
clusive claim
of the pope
to interpret
Scripture.

Readings in European History

The third
wall : the
exclusive
right of the
pope to
summon a
council.

contains so many heretical and unchristian — nay, unnatural
— laws ; but of them we need not speak at present. For
since the Romanists claim that the Holy Ghost never leaves
them, however wicked and ignorant they may be, they grow
bold enough to decree whatever they like. But were this
true, where were the need or use of the Holy Scriptures ?
Let us burn them and content ourselves instead with the
unlearned gentlemen at Rome in whom dwells the Holy
Ghost, who nevertheless is wont to dwell only in pious souls!
If I had not read about it, I would never have believed that
the devil could do such stupid things in Rome and still find
a following !

But that we fight not with our own words, let us bring
forth the Scriptures. St. Paul says : “ If any thing be re-
vealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace”
(i Cor. xiv. 30). What would be the use of this command-
ment if we were to believe him alone who speaks first or sits
in the highest seat ? Christ himself says that all Christians
shall be taught of God (John vi. 45). But it may come to
pass that the pope and his followers are wicked men, with-
out true understanding, neither true Christians nor taught
of God, whereas some common man may have true under-
standing. Why, then, should we not follow him.? Has not
the pope often been in error ? Who is to help Christianity
when the pope errs if we are not to believe another who has
the Scriptures for him ? . . . In olden times Abraham was
forced to listen to Sarah, though she was far more strictly
subject to him than we are now to any one on earth. Even
so Balaam’s ass was wiser than the prophet himself. If God
has spoken against a prophet through an ass, why should he
not still speak through a good man against the pope ?

The third wall falls of itself as soon as the first two have
fallen; for if the pope acts contrary to the Scriptures, we
are bound to stand by the Scriptures and to punish and
restrain him, in accordance with Christ’s commandment
(Matt, xviii. 15). . . . Moreover there is nothing in the Scrip-
tures to show that the pope has the sole right to summon
and confirm a council ; the Romanists have nothing but their

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 79

own laws, and these hold good only so long as they are not
opposed to Christianity and the laws of God ; but when the
pope deserves punishment these laws cease to exist, since
Christianity^ would suffer if he were not punished by means
of a council. . . .

And now I hope we have laid the false and lying specter
by means of which the Romanists have kept our timid con-
sciences in subjection. We have shown that they are sub-
ject, like all the rest of us, to the temporal sword ; that they
have no authority to interpret the Scriptures by force and
without knowledge ; and that they have no right either to
prevent a council, or to pledge and bind it in advance to
suit their pleasure and thus deprive it of its freedom. And
when they do this they are verily of the fellowship of Anti-
christ and the devil and have nothing from Christ but the
name.

Luther next invites the attention of the German rulers
to the pomp of the pope and cardinals for which the Ger-
mans must pay. This was a theme which appealed espe-
cially to those for whom he was writing. “ The pope
wears a triple crown, whereas the mightiest kings only
wear one.” Yet his office “ should be nothing else than
to weep and pray continually for Christendom and to be
an example of humility.”

What is the use in Christendom of those who are called
“ cardinals ” ? I will tell you. In Italy and Germany there
are many rich convents, endowments, holdings, and benefices;
and as the best way of getting these into the hands of Rome
they created cardinals, and gave to them the bishoprics, con-
vents, and prelacies, and thus destroyed the service of God.
That is why Italy is almost a desert now : the convents are
destroyed, the sees consumed, the revenues of the prelacies
and of all the churches drawn to Rome ; towns are decayed,
and the country and the people ruined because there is no
more any worship of God or preaching. Why ? Because the

246a. The
expense
to Germany
of the
cardinals.

Readings in Eitropcan History

246b. Ex-
ample of
Luther’s
vigorous
German.

cardinals must have all the wealth. The Turk himself could
not have so desolated Italy and so overthrown the worship
of God.

Now that Italy is sucked dry, they come to Germany
and begin very quietly, but we shall soon see Germany
brought into the same state as Italy. We have a few car-
dinals already. What the Romanists really mean to do
the “ drunken Germans ” are not to see until they have lost
everything.^ . . .

Now this devilish state of things is not only open rob-
bery and deceit and the prevailing of the gates of hell,
but it is destroying the very life and soul of Christianity;
therefore we are bound to use all our diligence to ward off
this misery and destruction. If we want to fight Turks, let
us begin here, — we cannot find worse ones. If we rightly
hang thieves and behead robbers, why do we leave the greed
of Rome unpunished ? for Rome is the greatest thief and
robber that has ever appeared on earth, or ever will ; and
all in the holy names of Church and St. Peter.

But here is a sample of the original German,^ which
shows how Luther could compel men to him by his fiery
appeals to German national feeling. He is speaking of
papal dispensations from vows and obligations.

Wenn keine andere bose Tiicke ware, die da bewahrte,
dass der Papst der rechte Antichrist sei, so ware eben dieses
Stiick genugsam, das zu bewahren. H5rst du, Papst, nicht
der Allerheiligste, sondern der Allersiindigste ! dass Gott
deinen Stuhl von Himmel auf’s schierste zerstore und in den
Abgrund der Holle senke ! Wer hat dir Gewalt gegeben,
dich zu erheben fiber deinen Gott ? das zu brechen und
losen, das er geboten hat, und die Christen, sonderlich die
deutsche Nation, die von edler Natur, bestandig und treu

^ This is naturally to be. taken with the same reservations with which
modern campaign documents are read by the judicious.

2 Somewhat modernized.

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 8 1

in alien Historien gelobt sind, zu lehren unbestandig, mein-
eidig, Verrater, Bosewichte, treulos sein ?

Gott hat geboten, man soil Eid und Treue halten auch den
Feinden ! und du unterwindest dich solches Gebot zu losen,
setzest in deinen ketzerischen, antichristlichen Dekretalen,
du habest Macht dariiber, und liigt durch deinen Hals und
Feder der bose Satan, als er nie gelogen hat, zwingst und
dringst die Schrift nach deinen Mutwillen ! Ach Christe,
mein Herr, sieh herab, lass herbrechen deinen jiingsten Tag
und zerstore des Teufels Nest zu Rom !

After proving, as he hoped, that the supremacy of
the pope was all a terrible mistake and that the secular
rulers were free and in duty bound to correct the evils
in the Church, Luther sketches a plan for preventing
money from going to Italy, for reducing the number of
idle, begging monks, of harmful pilgrimages, and inex-
pedient holidays. Luxury and drinking were to be re-
pressed, the universities, especially the divinity schools,
reorganized, etc.

VHI. Luther rejects the Doctrine of the Seven
Sacraments

In his Address to the Germari Nobility Luther had
said little or nothing of theology or religious doctrine.
But three months later (September, 1520) he attacked
the whole sacramental system of the mediaeval Church in
his Babylonish Captivity of the Church. Many reformers
like Glapion, the Franciscan confessor of Charles V, who
had read the Address with equanimity if not approval,
were shocked by Luther’s audacity in rejecting the
ancient conceptions of the Church.

To begin. I must deny that there are seven sacraments,
and must lay it down for the time being that there are

How the
pope had
demoralized
the Germans.

247. Lu-
ther’s Baby-
lonish Cap-
tiuity of the
Church.

Readings m En.ropean History

The mass not
a good work
or sacrifice.

Luther
realizes the
difficulty of
his task.

only three, — baptism, penance, and the bread [i.e. the com-
munion], and that by the court of Rome all these have been
brought into miserable bondage, and the Church despoiled
of all her liberty. And yet, if I were to speak according to
the usage of Scripture, I should hold that there was only
one sacrament, and three sacramental signs. I shall speak
on this point more at length at the proper time; but now
I speak of the sacrament of the bread, the first of all
sacraments.

After considering the question of the communion
under both kinds advocated both by Wycliffe and Huss,
and of transubstantiation, Luther turns to the mass as
a good work.

The third bondage of this same sacrament is that abuse
of it — and by far the most impious — by which it has come
about that at this day there is no belief in the Church more
generally received or more firmly held than that the mass
is a good work and a sacrifice. This abuse has brought
in an infinite flood of other abuses, until faith in the sacra-
ment has been utterly lost, and they have made this divine
sacrament a mere subject of traffic, huckstering, and money-
getting contracts. Hence communions, brotherhoods, suf-
frages, merits, anniversaries, memorials, and other things of
that kind are bought and sold in the Church, and made the
subjects of bargains and agreements ; and the entire main-
tenance of priests and monks depends upon these things.

I am entering on an arduous task, and it may perhaps
be impossible to uproot an abuse which, strengthened by
the practice of so many ages, and approved by universal
consent, has fixed itself so firmly among us that the greater
part of the books which have influence at the present day
must needs be done away with, and almost the entire aspect
of the churches be changed, and a totally different kind of
ceremonies be brought in, or rather, brought back. But my
Christ lives, and we must take heed to the word of God
with greater care than to all the intellects of men and

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 83

angels. I will perform my part, I will bring forth the sub-
ject into the light, and will impart the truth freely and
ungrudgingly as I have received it. For the rest, let every
one look to his own salvation ; I will labor, as in the pres-
ence of Christ, my judge, in order that no man may be able
to throw upon me the blame of his own unbelief and igno-
rance of the truth.

IX. The Edict of the Diet of Worms (May, 1521)

1. We, Charles V, by God’s grace Roman emperor elect,
ever august, king of Germany, Spain, the two Sicilies, Jeru-
salem, Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, etc., archduke of Aus-
tria, duke of Burgundy, etc., count of Hapsburg, Flanders,
and Tyrol, salute and tender our gracious good wishes to
each and all of the electors, princes, — both spiritual and sec-
ular,— prelates, counts, barons, knights, nobles, captains,
governors, burgomasters, councilors, judges, citizens, and
communities, also rectors and officers of all universities, and
all other beloved and faithful subjects of ours, or of the Em-
pire, of whatsoever rank they may be, to whom these our
imperial letters, or a credible copy certified by a spiritual
prelate or a public notary, may come or be announced.

2. Most reverend, honorable, and illustrious friends and
relatives, devoted and loyal : as it pertains to our office of
Roman emperor, not only to enlarge the bounds of the Holy
Roman Empire, which our fathers of the German nation
founded for the defense of the Holy Roman and Catholic
Church, subduing unbelievers by the sword, through the
divine grace, with much shedding of blood, but also, adher-
ing to the rule hitherto observed by the Holy Roman Church,
to take care that no stain or suspicion of heresy should con-
taminate our holy faith within the Roman Empire, or, if heresy
had already begun, to extirpate it with all necessary diligence,
prudence, and discretion, as the case might demand ;

3. Therefore we hold that if it was the duty of any of
our ancestors to defend the Christian name, much greater
is the obligation on us, inasmuch as the unparalleled goodness

248. The

Edict of

Worms

condemning

Luther

and his

adherents.

Charles V
holds it to be
his duty to
extirpate
heresy.

Readings in European History

Luther’s

wicked

arrogance.

of Almighty God has, for the protection and increase of
his holy faith, endowed us with more kingdoms and lands
and greater power in the Empire than any of our ancestors
for many years. Moreover we are also sprung from the
paternal stock of the emperors and archdukes of Austria,
and dukes of Burgundy, and from the maternal stock of the
most faithful kings of Spain, the Sicilies, and Jerusalem, —
the memory of whose illustrious deeds, wrought for the
Christian faith, will never pass away.

4. Whereas, certain heresies have sprung up in the Ger-
man nation within the last three years, which were formerly
condemned by the holy councils and papal decrees, with the
consent of the whole Church, and are now drawn anew
from hell, should we permit them to become more deeply
rooted, or, by our negligence, tolerate and bear with them,
our conscience would be greatly burdened, and the future
glory of our name would be covered by a dark cloud in the
auspicious beginnings of our reign.

5. Since now without doubt it is plain to you all how far
these errors and heresies depart from the Christian way,
which a certain Martin Luther, of the Augustinian order,
has sought violently and virulently to introduce and dis-
seminate within the Christian religion and its established
order, especially in the German nation, which is .renowned
as a perpetual destroyer of all unbelief and heresy; so that,
unless it is* speedily prevented, the whole German nation,
and later all other nations, will be infected by this same dis-
order, and mighty dissolution and pitiable downfall of good
morals, and of the peace and the Christian faith, will result.

9. And although, after the delivery of the papal bull and
final condemnation of Luther, we proclaimed the bull in
many places in the German nation, as well as in our Bur-
gundian lands, and especially its execution at Cologne,
Treves, Mayence, and Liege, nevertheless Martin Luther
has taken no account of it, nor lessened nor revoked his
errors, nor sought absolution from his Papal Holiness or
grace from the holy Christian Church; but like a madman

Martin Luther and his Revolt agamst the Church 8 5

plotting the manifest destruction of the holy Church, he
daily scatters abroad much worse fruit and effect of his
depraved heart and mind through very numerous books,
both in Latin and German, composed by himself, or at least
under his name, which are full of heresies and blasphemies,
not only new ones but also those formerly condemned by
holy councils.

10. Therein he destroys, overturns, and abuses the num-
ber, arrangement, and use of the seven sacraments, received
and held for so many centuries by the holy Church, and in
astonishing ways shamefully pollutes the indissoluble bonds
of holy matrimony ; and says also that holy unction is a
mere invention. He desires also to adapt our customs and
practice in the administration of the most holy sacrament of
the holy eucharist to the habit and custom of the condemned
Bohemians. And he begins to attack confession, — most
wholesome for the hearts that are polluted or laden with sins,
— declaring that no profit or consolation can be expected
from it. Finally, he threatens to write so much more fully
of confession that (if it be allowed) not only will all who read
his mad writings venture to say that confession is useless,
but most of them declare that one should not confess at all.

11. He not only holds the priestly office and order in
contempt, but also urges secular and lay persons to bathe
their hands in the blood of priests ; and he uses scurrilous
and shameful words against the chief priest of our Christian
faith, the successor of St. Peter and true vicar of Christ on
earth, and pursues him with manifold and unprecedented
attacks and invectives. He demonstrates also from the hea-
then poets that there is no free will, because all things are
determined by an immutable decree.

12. And he writes that the mass confers no benefit on
him for whom it is celebrated. Moreover he overthrows the
custom of fasting and prayer, established by the holy Church
and hitherto maintained. Especially does he impugn the
authority of the holy fathers, as they are received by the
Church, and would destroy obedience and authority of every
kind. Indeed, he writes nothing which does not arouse and

Luther’s

heresies

enumerated

Readings in European History

Luther
summoned
to Worms.

promote sedition, discord, war, murder, robbery, and arson,
and tend toward the complete downfall of the Christian
faith. For he teaches a loose, self-willed life, severed from
all laws and wholly brutish ; and he is a loose, self-willed
man, who condemns and rejects all laws ; for he has shown
no fear or shame in burning publicly the decretals and canon
law. And had he feared the secular sword no more than the
ban and penalties of the pope, he would have committed
much worse offenses against the civil law.

13. He does not blush to speak publicly against holy
councils, and to abuse and insult them at will. Especially
has he everywhere bitterly attacked the Council of Constance
with his foul mouth, and calls it a synagogue of Satan, to
the shame and disgrace of the whole Church and of the
German nation. . . . And he has fallen into such madness
of spirit as to boast that if Huss were a heretic then he is
ten times a heretic.

14. But all the other innumerable wickednesses of Luther
must, for brevity’s sake, remain unreckoned. This fellow ap-
pears to be not so much a man as the wicked demon in the
form of a man and under a monk’s cowl. He has collected
many heresies of the worst heretics, long since condemned
and forgotten, together with some newly invented ones, in
one stinking pool, under pretext of preaching faith^ which
he extols with so great industry in order that he may ruin
the true and genuine faith, and under the name and appear-
ance of evangelical doctrine overturn and destroy all evan-
gelical peace and love, as well as all righteous order and the
most excellent hierarchy of the Church. . . .

16. And now, particularly on account of these things, we
have summoned here to Worms the electors, princes, and
estates of this our Holy Empire, and carefully examined the
aforesaid matters with great diligence, as evident necessity
demands, and with unanimous advice and consent of all, we
decree what follows.

17. Although one so condemned and persisting in his
obstinate perversity, separated from the rites of the Christian
Church and a manifest heretic, is denied a hearing under

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 87

all laws; nevertheless, to prevent all unprofitable dispute,
. . . we, through our herald, gave him a safe-conduct to
come hither, in order that he might be questioned in our
own presence and in that of the electors, princes, and estates
of the Empire ; whether he had composed the books which
were then laid before his eyes. . . .

18. And as soon as these books were enumerated, he
acknowledged them as his own, and moreover declared that
he would never deny them. And he also says that he has
made many other books, which we have not mentioned
herein because we have no knowledge of them.

25. Accordingly, in view of all these considerations and
the fact that Martin Luther still persists obstinately and
perversely in maintaining his heretical opinions, and conse-
quently all pious and God-fearing persons abominate and
abhor him as one mad or possessed by a demon, ... we
have declared and made known that the said Martin Luther
shall hereafter be held and esteemed by each and all of us
as a limb cut off from the Church of God, an obstinate
schismatic and manifest heretic. . . .

27. And we publicly attest by these letters that we order
and command each and all of you, as you owe fidelity to us
and the Holy Empire, and would escape the penalties of the
crime of treason, and the ban and over-ban of the Empire,
and the forfeiture of all regalia, fiefs, privileges, and immu-
nities, which up to this time you have in any way obtained
from our predecessors, ourself, and the Holy Empire ; —
commanding, we say, in the name of the Roman and impe-
rial majesty, we strictly order that immediately after the
expiration of the appointed twenty days, terminating on the
fourteenth day of May, you shall refuse to give the aforesaid
Martin Luther hospitality, lodging, food, or drink ; neither
shall any one, by word or deed, secretly or openly, succor or
assist him by counsel or help ; but in whatever place you
meet him, you shall proceed against him ; if you have suffi-
cient force, you shall take him prisoner and keep him in close
custody; you shall deliver him, or cause him to be delivered,

Luther
put under
the ban.

No one to
print, sell,
or discuss
Luther’s
writings.

88 Readings in European History

to us or at least let us know where he may be captured.
In the meanwhile you shall keep him closely imprisoned until
you receive notice from us what further to do, according to
the direction of the laws. And for such holy and pious work
we will indemnify you for your trouble and expense.

28. In like manner you shall proceed against his friends,
adherents, patrons, maintainers, abettors, sympathizers, emu-
lators, and followers. And the property of these, whether
personal or real, you shall, in virtue of the sacred ordinances
and of our imperial ban and over-ban, treat in this way;
namely, you shall attack and overthrow its possessors and
wrest their property from them and transfer it to your own
custody and uses; and no one shall hinder or impede these
measures, unless the owner shall abandon his unrighteous
way and secure papal absolution.

29. Consequently we command you, each and all, under
the penalities already prescribed, that henceforth no one
shall dare to buy, sell, read, preserve, copy, print, or cause
to be copied or printed, any books of the aforesaid Martin
Luther, condemned by our holy father the pope as afore-
said, or any other writings in German or Latin hitherto
composed by him, since they are foul, harmful, suspected,
and published by a notorious and stiffnecked heretic. Nei-
ther shall any dare to approve his opinions, nor to proclaim,
defend, or assert them, in any other way that human inge-
nuity can invent, notwithstanding he may have put some
good in them to deceive the simple man.

38. And in order that all this may be done and credit
given to this document, we have sealed it with our imperial
seal, which has been affixed in our imperial city of Worms,
on the eighth day of May, after the birth of Christ 1521, in
the second year of our reign over the Roman Empire, and
over our other lands the sixth. ^

By our lord the emperor’s own command.

1 The German version of the edict is given by Walch, Luthers
Werke, Vol. XV, columns 2264 sqq. There are two Latin versions, seem-
ingly independent translations from the German, and both attributed to

Martin Lnther and his Revolt against the Church 89

X. Erasmus’ Distrust of Luther

Erasmus had good reason to fear that he was regarded
as one of Luther’s sympathizers and supporters, for in
the opinion of many of his enemies he had really laid the
egg that Luther had hatched. Just after the close of the
diet of Worms he wrote to an English friend, Richard
Pace, as follows ;

Brussels, July 5, 1521.

... I fear that the Dominicans and some of the theolo-
gians will use their victory intemperately, especially those of
Louvain, who have some private grudge against me and have
discovered in Jerome Aleander a person admirably adapted
to their purposes. This man is mad enough anyway, with-
out any one to stir him up ; but as it is, he has instigators
enough to drive even the most moderate to madness. The
most virulent pamphlets are flying about on all sides, and
Aleander ascribes them all to me, though I was ignorant of
the very existence of many of them before he called my
attention to them. Luther has acknowledged his own books
in the presence of the emperor, and yet The Babylonish Cap-
tivity^ which is one of them, is ascribed to me. A prolific
author indeed I must be, seeing that I was able to write so
many pamphlets while I was meantime revising the text of
the New Testament, and editing the works of Augustine, not
to speak of other undertakings.

Cochlzeus, Luther’s well-known opponent. These differ in their wording,
and slightly in their contents, from one another and from the German.
One may be found in Goldast, Constitutiones, Vol. II, pp. 142 sqq.^ and
is reproduced by Le Plat in his Monume7ito7'U7n Collectio, Vol. II, pp.
1 15 sqq. R'aynaldus, A7i7iales, s. d. 1521, and Gerdes, Historia Refor-
77iatio7iis, Vol. II, Appendix, pp. 34 sqq., give the other. I do not know
whether or not the original draft by the papal representative Aleander,
which we may presume was in Latin, has ever been published. The
translation here given follows Walch’s German text, with some modifi-
cations suggested by the text in Raynaldus. I have availed myself of
the translation in the Crozer Historical Leaflets, No. 3, amending it to
bring it into closer accord with the originals.

249. The
prudent
policy of
Erasmus.

Readings in Ettropean History

May I be lost if in all of Luther’s works there is a single
syllable of mine, or if any calumnious book was ever pub-
lished by me ; on the contrary, I do all I can to deter others
from issuing such works. Now, however, they are taking a
new tack, and assert that Luther has borrowed some of his
doctrines from my works, as if he had not borrowed more
from Paul’s epistles. I now see clearly at last that it has been
the policy of the Germans to implicate me, whether I would
or no, in this business of Luther, — a most unwise policy
indeed, since nothing would sooner have alienated me from
them. What aid indeed could I have rendered Luther even
had I chosen to share his danger ? The only result would
have been that two must perish instead of one. I can never
sufficiently wonder at the violent spirit which he has dis-
played in his writings, by which he has certainly brought
immense discredit on all the friends of good literature.
Many indeed of his teachings and exhortations are excellent,
but I wish that he had not vitiated the good in his writings
by his intolerable faults.

But even if he had always written in the most reverent
spirit, still I should have had no inclination to risk my life
for the truth. It is not every one who has strength for
martyrdom, and I am afraid that if any outbreak should
take place I should imitate St. Peter. When the popes and
emperors decree what is right I obey, — which is the course
of true piety ; but when they command what is wrong, I sub-
mit, — and that is the safe course. I think that all good
men are justified in acting thus when there is no hope of
successful opposition. . . .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Refer- Luther’s Early Years : Kostlin, Life of Luther, 10-56; Hen-

ences. DERSON, Short History of Ger7nany, Vol. I, pp. 251-273; Dyer and

Hassall, Modern Europe, Vol. I, pp. 400-415; Walker, The Refor-
mation, pp. 77-108.

The Theses; Kostlin, pp. 82-107.

The Diet of Worms: Henderson, Vol. I, pp. 275-284; Kostlin,
pp. 222-245; WALKER,*pp. 108-123.

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 91

The student of the Protestant Revolt must always remember that
almost all accounts of the period are partisan; most of them, especially
the older ones, are so biased as to be wholly unreljable.i Even apart
from religious bias, Luther’s character strangely fascinates many writers,
but is utterly repellent to others. The works mentioned below are
all of them either Protestant or Catholic in sympathy, but they are
scholarly and in the main accurate.

Seebohm, The Era of the Protestaiit Revolution (Epochs of Modern
History), is an admirable little book, which deals briefly with the whole
course of the Protestant Revolt in the various countries of western
Europe.

Beard, Martin Luther. The best life in English. Chapter IV,
“Luther’s life prior to his Revolt”; Chapter VII, “Luther’s appeal
to the Nation in 1520”; Chapter IX, “The Diet of Worms.” The
work was never completed, owing to the death of the writer. The
Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in its Relation to Modern Thought
and Knowledge (Hibbert Lectures, 1883), by the same author, is very
suggestive and valuable.

Creighton, History of the Papacy, Vol. VI, Chapter III, “Luther’s
Life before 1521,” and Chapter V, “ The Diet of Worms.” Excellent.

Janssen, History of the German People, Vol. III. The most cele-
brated modern Catholic work in this field. Very valuable, especially to
those who know only the traditional Protestant views.

Spalding (archbishop of Baltimore), The History of the Protestant
Reformation, in a Series of Essays, 2 vols. This work is not a system-
atic history, and is chiefly concerned with the alleged misrepresentations
and errors of the less judicious Protestant writers.

Ranke, History of the Reformation, Vol. I, Book II.

Bax, German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages, 1894. A rather
slight work, but clear and brief. See especially Chapters I, V, and VII,
on the conditions in town and country.

First Principles of the Reformation, or the Three Primary Works of
Dr. Martin Luther, edited by Wage and Buchheim, Philadelphia,
contains a correct, if rather lifeless, translation of Luther’s “ Theses,”
his letter of 1520 to Leo X, his “Address to the German Nobility,”
“Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” and “ Liberty of the Christian.”
Very valuable to one who cannot read German and Latin.

Luther, Table Talk, translated by Hazlitt (Bohn Library). See
under C, below, p. 93.

1 See my paper in the American Historical Review, January, 1903, on “ The
Study of the Protestant Revolt.”

B. Addi-
tional read-
mg in
English.

Partisan
character of
the books on
the Protes-
tant Revolt.

Readings in European History

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

The sources.

Luther’s

works

(Weimar

edition).

Walch’s

edition.

Erlangen

edition.

Luther’s
Table Talk.

Kostlin^ Martin Luther, sein Leben und seine Schriften, 2 vols.
The best of the innumerable lives of the reformer. The English edition
cited above under A is a. translation of an abridged popular edition
of the complete work.

Berger, A. E., L)ie Kulturaufgaben der Reformation, Einleitung in
eine Lutherbiographie, 1895. An elaborate review of the conditions
leading up to Luther’s revolt. The same writer is issuing a new biog-
raphy of Luther, — Martin Luther in kulturgeschichtlicher Darstellung.
Vol. I, 1483-1525 (1895), and Vol. II, Part I, have appeared.

Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, Vol. IX, by Cardinal Hergenrother.
Useful Catholic view of Luther’s teachings.

Bezold, Lamprecht, and Egelhaaf (see above, pp. 51 sql) are all
admirable for the opening of the Lutheran revolt.

Maurenbrecher, Studien und Skizzen zur Geschichte der Refor-
mationzeit, 1874. A very fair-minded writer. See especially his essay on
the sources for the Lutheran period, pp. 205 sq.

Bollinger, Die Reformation, Hire innere Entwicklung und ihre Wir-
kungen, 3 vols., 1846-1848. A remarkable collection of extracts chosen
to illustrate the hostility Luther aroused among educated men.

Lea, IListory of Confession and Indulgences, 3 vols. ; especially
Vol. Ill, Chapter VII, “ The Reformation.”

Harnack, History of Dogma, Vol. VII. The outcome of the Prot-
estant Revolt from a theological standpoint.

Luther, Briefwechsel, edited by Enders, 1884 sq. Ten volumes
have so far appeared, coming down to 1536. Admirably annotated, and
includes not only Luther’s Latin correspondence but important letters
addressed to him by others.

Of Luther’s works by far the best edition is that now in course of
publication at Weimar. Some 25 volumes have appeared. This collec-
tion has great advantages for historical students, since the works, both
the Latin and the German, are published in chronological order and
admirably edited. In the old edition of Luther’s w'orks (1745) edited by
Walch, the Latin works are translated into German. Walch devotes
Vols. XV-XVII to documents relating to the history of the Reforma-
tion. Besides these two editions there is the so-called Erlangen edition
in small volumes, comprising a Latin series (1829-1836), a German
series (2d ed., 1862 sqql), and 7 useful volumes. Opera varii argumenti,
containing pamphlets, etc.

Luther’s views and sayings, as uttered freely, not to say recklessly,
in familiar conversation with his friends, were carefully treasured up by
his admirers and recorded in the form of Table Talk. The first collection

Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 93

of these scraps of conversation was published by Aurifaber in 1566,
twenty years after Luther’s death. The best modern edition is edited
by Forstemann, Luther's Tischreden nach Aurifabers erste Ausgabe
(showing the additions and alterations made by later editors), 4 parts,
1844-1848. There is an English translation of Aurifaber’s Table Talk by
Hazlitt (Bohn Library). Another sixteenth-century editor, Rebenstock,
issued a collection of Latin conversations of Luther. This is republished
by Bindseil, Lutheri Colloquia, 3 vols., 1863-1866. The sayings are
classified under headings: “Of God’s Works,” “Of the Devil,” “Of
Antichrist,” “ Of Magic,” etc. For examples of the original notes which
underlie the Table Talk, see Lauterbach, Tagebuch auf das Jahr igg8,
edited by Seidemann, 1872 ; Tischreden aus den Jahren iggi tmd igg2
nach den Aufzeichnungen von Schlaginhaufen, edited by Preger, 1888 ;
and Analecta Lutherana, edited by Loesche, 1892, based on the notes
of Mathesius. Cf. Meyer, Wilh., Uber Lauterbachs tmd Aurifabers
Sammlungen der Tischreden Luthers, Konig. Gesellschaft d. Wissen-
schaft Gottingen, Abhandl. Philol-hist. Kl., N.F., Vol. I, No. 2.

CoCHL/EUS, Historia de actis et scriptis M. Luther. An account of
Luther by one of his better opponents. Formerly much used by
Catholic writers.

Brieger, Aleander tmd Luther, ip2i, Gotha, 1884. An admirable
edition of the remarkable dispatches in which Aleander, one of the
pope’s representatives at Worms, describes the conditions in Germany.

CHAPTER XXVI

COURSE OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLT IN GERMANY
(1521-1555)

I. The Peasant War ^

The Edict of Worms denounced Luther as an oppo-
nent of law and a breeder of sedition. This view was
substantiated in the eyes of many by the revolt, first of
the knights, and then of the peasants, for in both cases
the malcontents had much to say of evangelical truth
and liberty. The following manifesto of the peasants,
drawn up in 1 524, clearly shows the influence of Luther’s
teachings. Yet the revolt cannot be attributed to him,
but rather to the general social and economic conditions
which had produced a number of similar disturbances
earlier. Much had been said by the popular leaders of
“God’s justice” and of the vices of the clergy before
ever Luther was heard of.

250. The
fundamental
and correct
chief articles
of the peas-
ants, relat-
ing to th9
matters in
which they
feel them-
selves
aggrieved.

Peace to the Christia7i reader and the grace of God through

Christ :

There are many evil writings put forth of late which take
occasion, on account of the assembling of the peasants, to
cast scorn upon the gospel, saying, “ Is this the fruit of the
new teaching, that no one should obey but that all should
everywhere rise in revolt, and rush together to reform, or
perhaps destroy altogether, the authorities, both ecclesiastic

1 The amount of space devoted in this chapter to the Peasant "War
will not seem excessive to one who considers how admirably the mate-
rial here given illustrates the extreme intricacy of the movements for
religious, social, economic, and political reform.

Course of the Protestant Revolt in Germany 95

and lay ? ” The articles below shall answer these godless
and criminal fault-finders, and serve, in the first place, to
remove the reproach from the word of God and, in the sec-
ond place, to give a Christian excuse for the disobedience
or even the revolt of the entire peasantry.

In the first place, the gospel is not the cause of revolt and
disorder, since it is the message of Christ, the promised
Messiah ; the word of life, teaching only love, peace, patience,
and concord. Thus all who believe in Christ should learn
to be loving, peaceful, long-suffering, and harmonious. This
is the foundation of all the articles of the peasants (as will
be seen), who accept the gospel and live according to it.
How then can the evil reports declare the gospel to be a
cause of revolt and disobedience t That the authors of the
evil reports and the enemies of the gospel oppose themselves
to these demands is due, not to the gospel, but to the devil,
the worst enemy of the gospel, who causes this opposition
by raising doubts in the minds of his followers, and thus the
word of God, which teaches love, peace, and concord, is
overcome.

In the second place, it is clear that the peasants demand
that this gospel be taught them as a guide in life, and they
ought not to be called disobedient or disorderly. Whether
God grant the peasants (earnestly wishing to live according
to his word) their requests or no, who shall find fault with
the will of the Most High ? Who shall meddle in his judg-
ments or oppose his majesty ? Did he not hear the children
of Israel when they called upon him and save them out of
the hands of Pharaoh? Can he not save his own to-day?
Yea, he will save them and that speedily. Therefore, Chris-
tian reader, read the following articles with care and then
judge. Here follow the articles :

The First Article. First, it is our humble petition and
desire, as also our will and resolution, that in the future we
should have power and authority so that each community
should choose and appoint a pastor, and that we should
have the right to depose him should he conduct himself
improperly. The pastor thus chosen should teach us the

Pastors to be
chosen by
the people.

The tithe.

Protest

against

serfdom.

96 Readings in European History

gospel pure and simple, without any addition, doctrine, or
ordinance of man.

The Second Article. According as the just tithe is estab-
lished by the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New, we
are ready and willing to pay the fair tithe of grain. The
word of God plainly provides that in giving rightly to God
and distributing to his people the services of a pastor are
required. We will that for the future our church provost,
whomsoever the community may appoint, shall gather and
receive this tithe. From this he shall give to the pastor,
elected by the whole community, a decent and sufficient
maintenance for him and his, as shall seem right to the
whole community. What remains over shall be given to the
poor of the place, as the circumstances and the general
opinion demand. Should anything farther remain, let it be
kept, lest any one should have to leave the country from
poverty. The small tithes,^ whether ecclesiastical or lay, we
will not pay at all, for the Lord God created cattle for the
free use of man. We will not, therefore, pay farther an
unseemly tithe which is of man’s invention.

The Third Article. It has been the custom hitherto for
men to hold us as their own property, which is pitiable
enough, considering that Christ has delivered and redeemed
us all, without exception, by the shedding of his precious
blood, the lowly as well as the great. Accordingly it is con-
sistent with Scripture that we should be free and should
wish to be so. Not that we would wish to be absolutely
free and under no authority. God does not teach us that
we should lead a disorderly life in the lusts of the flesh, but
that we should love the Lord our God and our neighbor.
We would gladly observe all this as God has commanded us
in the celebration of the communion. He has not com-
manded us not to obey the authorities, but rather that we
should be humble, not only towards those in authority, but
towards every one. We are thus ready to yield obedience
according to God’s law to our elected and regular authorities

1 That is, tithes of other products than the staple crops, — for exam-
ple, tithes of pigs or lambs.

Course of the Protestant Revolt in Germany 97

in all proper things becoming to a Christian. We therefore
take it for granted that you will release us from serfdom as
true Christians, unless it should be shown us from the gospel
that we are serfs.

The Fourth Article. In the fourth place, it has been the
custom heretofore that no poor man should be allowed to
touch venison or wild fowl, or fish in flowing water, which
seems to us quite unseemly and unbrotherly as well as self-
ish and not agreeable to the word of God. In some places
the authorities preserve the game to our great annoyance
and loss, recklessly permitting the unreasoning animals to
destroy to no purpose our crops, which God suffers to grow
for the use of man ; and yet we must submit quietly. This
is neither godly nor neighborly ; for when God created man
he gave him dominion over all the animals, over the birds of
the air and over the fish in the water. Accordingly it is our
desire, if a man holds possession of waters, that he should
prove from satisfactory documents that his right has been
unwittingly [jmwissenlicli] acquired by purchase. We do not
wish to take it from him by force, but his rights should be
exercised in a Christian and brotherly fashion. But whoso-
ever cannot produce such evidence should surrender his
claim with good grace.

The Fifth Article. In the fifth place, we are aggrieved in
the matter of woodcutting, for the noble folk have appropri-
ated all the woods to themselves alone. If a poor man
requires wood, he must pay two pieces of money for it. It
is our opinion in regard to a wood which has fallen into the
hands of a lord, whether spiritual or temporal, that unless it
was duly purchased it should revert again to the commu-
nity. It should, moreover, be free to every member of the
community to help himself to such firewood as he needs in
his home.

The Sixth Article. Our sixth complaint is in regard to the
excessive services which are demanded of us and which are
increased from day to day. We ask that this matter be
properly looked into, so that we shall not continue to be
oppressed in this way, but that some gracious consideration

Hunting
and fishing
rights.

Restrictions
on wood-
cutting.

Excessive
services
demanded of
the peasants.

Readings in European History

Readjust-
ment of rents.

Protest
against the
new Roman
law then
being intro-
duced into
Germany.

Loss of
common land.

The heriot.

be given us, since our forefathers were required only to
serve according to the word of God.

The Seventh Article. Seventh, we will not hereafter allow
ourselves to be farther oppressed by our lords, but will let
them demand only what is just and proper according to the
word of the agreement between the lord and the peasant.
The lord should no longer try to force more services or
other dues from the peasant without payment, but permit
the peasant to enjoy his holding in peace and quiet. The
peasant should, however, help the lord when it is necessary,
and at proper times, when it will not be disadvantageous to
the peasant, and for a suitable payment.

The Eighth Article. In the eighth place, we are greatly
burdened by holdings which cannot support the rent exacted
from them. The peasants suffer loss in this way and are
ruined ; and we ask that the lords may appoint persons of
honor to inspect these holdings, and fix a rent in accordance
with justice, so that the peasant shall not work for nothing,
since the laborer is worthy of his hire.

The Ninth Article. In the ninth place, we are burdened
with a great evil in the constant making of new laws. We
are not judged according to the offense, but sometimes with
great ill-will, and sometimes much too leniently. In our
opinion, we should be judged according to the old written
law, so that the case shall be decided according to its merits,
and not with partiality.

The Tenth Article. In the tenth place, we are aggrieved
by the appropriation by individuals of meadows and fields
which at one time belonged to a community. These we will
take again into our own hands. It may, however, happen
that the land was rightfully purchased. When, however, the
land has unfortunately been purchased in this way, some
brotherly arrangement should be made according to circum-
stances.

The Eleventh Article. In the eleventh place, we will entirely
abolish the due called “ heriot,” and will no longer endure
it, nor allow widows and orphans to be thus shamefully
robbed against God’s will.

CoiLvse of the Protestant Revolt m Germa7iy 99

Conclusion. In the twelfth place, it is our conclusion and
final resolution that if any one or more of the articles here
set forth should not be in agreement with the word of God,
as we think they are, such article we will willingly retract if
it is proved really to be against the word of God by a clear
explanation of the Scripture. Or if articles should now be
conceded to us that are hereafter discovered to be unjust,
from that hour they shall be dead and null and without force.
Likewise, if more complaints should be discovered which
are based upon truth and the Scriptures and relate to offenses
against God and our neighbor, we have determined to reserve
the right to present these also, and to exercise ourselves in
all Christian teaching. For this we shall pray to God, since
he can grant our demands, and he alone. The peace of Christ
abide with us all.

The demands of the peasants seem moderate and
reasonable enough to us, but nearly three hundred years
elapsed before they were met by the reforms of the
early nineteenth century. Luther’s comments on the
“Twelve Articles” are very instructive. Article II, on
the tithe, he declares to be downright highway robbery,
for the peasants would appropriate a source of revenue
which belongs to the authorities, not to them. As to
Article III, on serfdom, he says :

There should be no serfs, because Christ has freed us
all ! What is that we hear ? That is to make Christian free-
dom wholly bodily. Did not Abraham and the other patri-
archs and prophets have serfs ? Read what St. Paul says
of servants, who in all times have been serfs. So this arti-
cle is straight against the gospel, and moreover it is rob-
bery, since each man would take his person from his lord to
whom it belongs. A serf can be a good Christian and enjoy
Christian liberty, just as a prisoner or a sick man may be a
Christian although he is not free. This article would make
all men equal and convert the spiritual kingdom of Christ

All claims
to be tested
by the
Scriptures.

251. Luther
on the
“ Twelve
Articles ”
(May, 1525).

lOO

Readings in Eiu'opean History

into an external worldly one ; but that is impossible, for a
worldly realm cannot stand where there is no inequality ;
some must be free, others bond ; some rulers, others sub-
jects. . . .

My counsel would be that a few counts and lords should
be chosen from the nobles, and from the towns a few coun-
cilors, who should settle the matter peacefully. You lords
should unbend your stiff minds a bit, — for you will have to
do that sooner or later whether you will or no, — and give up
a little of your oppression and tyranny, so that the poor man
can have a little space and air. On the other hand, the
peasants will have to let a few of their articles go, which are
screwed up too high. In this way the matter, even if it can-
not be treated in a Christian spirit, can at least be adjusted
according to human laws and agreements.

If you will not follow this advice, which God would
approve, I must leave you to yourselves. But I am guiltless
of your souls, your blood, and your goods. I have told you
that you are both wrong and are fighting for the wrong.
You nobles are not fighting against Christians, for Christians
would not oppose you, but would suffer all. You are fighting
against robbers and blasphemers of Christ’s name; those
that die among them shall be eternally damned. But neither
are the peasants fighting Christians, but tyrants, enemies of
God, and persecutors of men, murderers of the Holy Ghost.
Those of them who die shall also be eternally damned. And
this is God’s certain judgment on you both — that I know.
Do now what you will so long as you care not to save either
your bodies or souls.

The following is a condensation of the account given
by Michael Eisenhart, a citizen of Rothenburg on the
Tauber, of the conduct of the peasantry during the spring
of 1525. The revolt had begun near the lake of Con-
stance, late in the previous December, and had spread from
Swabia into Alsace, Franconia, Wiirttemberg, Thuringia,
and Saxony. The towns also joined in the movement.

Course of the Protestant Revolt in Germany i o i

Through the preachers here in Rothenburg, — namely,
Caspar Cristian, a priest, and Brother Melchoir, who
married the blind monk’s sister and held the wedding in
Schwarzman’s house, — also especially through the efforts
of Hans Rotfuchs, the blind monk himself, and another
fellow who gave himself out for a peasant, and through cer-
tain citizens here in Rothenburg who adhere to the heresy
of Luther and Carlstadt, it has come about that bad, false
teaching has greatly got the upper hand, owing also to the
dissimulation and concessions of some of the town authorities.
Dr. Andreas Carlstadt has appeared in person, preached
here, and asked to be received as a burgher.

On March 21, a Tuesday, thirty or forty peasants got
together in a mob in Rothenburg, bought a kettledrum, and
marched about the town, a part going to Pretheim and a part
toward Orenbach. They got together again on Thursday
and on Friday, as many as four hundred.

The working classes in the town now begin to revolt.
They cease to obey the authorities and form a committee of
thirty- six to manage affairs. Cunz Eberhardt and George
Bermeter are meanwhile dispatched to learn what the peasants
are doing ; but the peasants will give no reply, for they say
that they have not all got together yet. A letter is received
from Margrave Casimir [of Brandenburg]. This is read to
the community. He offers to aid the town authorities and if
necessary come in person to reestablish peace and harmony.
The community and their committee of thirty-six treat this
scornfully and do not accept the offer.

March 24.. This evening between five and six o’clock
some one knocked off the head of Christ’s image on a cruci-
fix and struck off the arms.

March 25. The town councils are in great danger and
anxiety, for they are oppressed by the community and its
committee of thirty-six.

March 27. The councilors are forced to pledge their obedi-
ence to the community, for they are taken out one by one,
guarded by members of the committee of thirty-six. Each
thought he was going to be killed, but after taking the

252. The
revolt of the
peasants
and the
artisans.
(From
Eisenhart
of Rothen-
hurg; con-
densed.)

The working
classes in
Rothenburg
revolt and
form a
provisional
government.

Demands of
the artisans.

Religious

revolution.

102 Readings in Enropea7i History

pledge he was secretly sent home without his companions’
knowledge.

March 26. Chrischainz, the baker, knocked the missal
out of the priest’s hand in the chapel of our Lady and drove
away the priest from mass. To-day the peasants let them-
selves be seen in the field outside the Galgenthor.

The following Monday, while the priest was performing
service in the parish church and chanting “ Adjuva nos, deus
salutaris noster,” Ernfried Kumpf addressed him rudely,
saying that if he wished to save himself he would better
leave the altar. Kumpf then knocked the missal on to the
floor and drove the scholars out of the choir.

On Tuesday eight hundred peasants came together.
Those who would not join them willingly they forced to do so
or took their property, as happened to a peasant at Wettring.

On Friday the peasants all gathered, as many as two
thousand strong, and camped near Neusitz. Lorenz Knob-
loch went out to them, and they promised to make him a
captain. The same day some of the peasants were sent into
the town to give a report of their demands and plans. Mean-
while representatives of the emperor and of the Swabian
League arrive with a hope of making peace, but they ride
away without accomplishing anything, as did those from
Nuremberg.

On this same day all the artisans were to lay all their
complaints and demands before a committee. The taxes,
wages, and methods of weighing were discussed. The peas-
ants encamped near Santhof. Friday, April 7, Kueplein,
during the sermon, threw the lighted oil lamps about the
church. Some of the peasants came into Rothenburg and
the neighboring towns, everywhere plundering cupboards
and cellars.

On Good Friday all services were suspended in the
churches of Rothenburg, for there was neither chanting nor
preaching except that Dr. John Teuschel preached against
emperor, kings, princes, and lords, ecclesiastical and lay, with
foul abuse and slander, on the ground that they were hinder-
ing God’s word.

Course of the Protestmit Revolt m Germany 103

On Saturday the blind monk, Hans Rotfuchs, spoke con-
temptuously of the holy sacrament, calling it idolatry and
heresy.

On holy Easter there was neither singing nor preaching.

Monday Dr. Andreas Carlstadt again attacked the holy sacra-
ment with abusive words. In the night some millers attacked
the church at Cobenzell and threw the pictures and images
into the Tauber.

April 18. The reforms of the committee are proclaimed.

The younger priests may, and should, marry, and may enjoy
their benefices for three years. The old priests shall have
theirs for life. There is a struggle between Kueplein and
his followers, on the one hand, who want to destroy a picture
of the Virgin, and the pious old Christians, on the other, who
wish to protect it. Some knives are drawn.

April ig. The peasants take three casks of wine from Crimes of
the priest at Scheckenpach and drink it up. peasants.

April 20. The women here in Rothenburg take eleven
measures of grain from the house of Conrad Volemar.

George Bermeter [one of the revolutionists] is chosen bur-
gomaster.

On the same day, Thursday after Easter, the women run
up and down Hafengasse with forks and sticks, declaring
that they v»?ill plunder all the priests’ houses, but are pre-
vented.

Friday. All priests are forced to become citizens, other-
wise they would have lost all their goods. They are to take
their share of guard duty and work on the fortifications.

On Wednesday (April 26) Lorenz Knobloch was hewn
to pieces by the peasants at Ostheim, and then they pelted
one another with the fragments. They said he was a traitor
and that he wanted to mislead them. Divine retribution !

He had said he would not die until he had killed three
priests, but, thank God, not one fell into his hands.

April JO. The monastery of Anhausen was plundered
and burned in the night, also that near Dinkelsbuhl. The
peasants also attacked the monastery of Schwarzach, and
the castle of Reichelsberg was burned.

Rothenburg
deserts the
empire and
joins the
peasants.

Further
attack of the
peasants on
the castle of
Wurzburg.

Casimir’s

revenge.

Defeat of the
peasants by
the Swabian
League.

104 Readings in European History

May 6. Early in the morning the great bell rang three
times, summoning the people to hear a message from Mar-
grave Casimir, brought by three noblemen, and inviting all
to take refuge in Rothenburg under his protection. The
greater part refused, and some were noted by the margrave’s
representative, and afterward lost their heads.

Monday. The peasants approach Neuhaus, and next day
plunder and burn.

In Rothenburg the citizens are summoned to decide
whether, like the neighboring towns of Heilbronn, Dinkels-
biihl, and Wimfen, they will aid the peasants. The majority
decide to send them guns and pikes, powder and lead.

May 12. The clergy forced to take arms like the rest.
All monks are compelled to lay aside their cowls and the
nuns their veils.

May ly. The bell summoned the community. In spite
of the protests of the old Christians, they are forced to obey
the majority, and Rothenburg that day fell away from the
empire and joined the peasants. In the meantime a gallows
was erected in the market place as a warning, according to
their ideas of brotherhood. Supplies were sent to the camp.

May ly. The peasants attack the castle of Wurzburg
and scale the walls, but are all killed. The peasants attempt
to get possession of Rothenburg by conspiracy, but are
ejected without bloodshed.

May 21. Certain Hohenlohe peasants burn their lord’s
castle.

On the next Monday Margrave Casimir proceeds with
his forces to subdue and punish the peasants. Hans Krelein
the older, priest at Wernitz, was beheaded, with four peas-
ants, at Leutershausen. Seven have their fingers cut off.
Likewise at Neuenstat eighteen burghers and peasants are
beheaded. At Kitzingen fifty-eight have their eyes put out
and are forbidden to enter the town again.

On Friday before Whitsuntide the forces of the Swabian
League slay four thousand peasants at Konigshofen.

On Monday after Whitsunday eight thousand peasants
are slaughtered by the troops of the League near Biittart

Course of the Protestant Revolt in Germany 1 05

and Sulzdorf. In all these battles the League lost not over
one hundred and fifty men.

On June 6 messengers are sent from Rothenburg to
Casimir to ask for pardon. Next day others are sent to
the League, but they are told that they must surrender
unconditionally.

On Thursday following, after the League had retaken the
town of Wurzburg, they beheaded sixty-two.

After the League had attacked Bamberg they beheaded
twenty-one.

On Friday after Corpus Christi, mass was once more
chanted in Rothenburg, as formerly.

June ly. Vespers, complines, and matins are once more
sung.

On June 23 Dr. John Teuschel and the blind monk
Hans are taken and shut up, but several others, including
Dr. Andreas Carlstadt, who had done most to stir up trouble,
secretly escape.

On the eve of Peter and Paul’s day Margrave Casimir
rides into Rothenburg wdth four hundred horsemen, a thou-
sand footmen, and two hundred wagons full of arms and
equipments.

Next day four hundred foot soldiers belonging to the
margrave and the League divide into two parts. One went
to the village of Orenbach, which they plundered, and burned
the church to the ground. The other went to Pretheim, a
fine village. This they plundered, killing a number of people,
including the innkeeper, behind a table. They burned the
village, including the church, and carried off six hundred
head of cattle and thirty carts full of plunder.

June JO. The citizens of Rothenburg are summoned to
the market place by a herald and surrounded by pikemen.
They are accused of deserting the empire and joining
the peasants, and are threatened with the vengeance they
deserve.

The names of a number of citizens are read off, and they
are beheaded on the spot. Their bodies are left on the
market place all day. Some got away through the ring of

Entrance
of Margrave
Casimir into
Rothenburg.

Atrocities
of the
soldiers.

253. Luther,
“ Against the
Murdering
and Robbing
Bands of the
Peasants.”

io6 Readmgs in EiLropeari History

soldiers : Lorenz Diem, the sexton, Joseph Schad, a tanner,
Fritz Dalck, a butcher, and others, but were nevertheless
executed.

July I. Fifteen more are beheaded in the market place,
including the blind monk. All the bodies are left on the
market place all day, then buried. All of these died with-
out confession or the last sacrament, and did not even ask
for it.

Luther, distracted by the fearful work of the peasants
and the boundless discredit which they were bringing
upon the name of the gospel, could find no words too
terrible in which to urge the princes to annihilate the
rebels.

In my preceding pamphlet [on the “ Twelve Articles ”] ^
I had no occasion to condemn the peasants, because they
promised to yield to law and better instruction, as Christ
also demands (Matt. vii. i). But before I can turn around,
they go out and appeal to force, in spite of their promises,
and rob and pillage and act like mad dogs. From this it
is quite apparent what they had in their false minds, and
that what they put forth under the name of the gospel in
the “ Twelve Articles ” was all vain pretense. In short, they
practice mere devil’s work, and it is the arch-devil himself
who reigns at Miihlhausen,^ indulging in nothing but rob-
bery, murder, and bloodshed ; as Christ says of the devil
in John viii. 44, “he was a murderer from the beginning.”
Since, therefore, those peasants and miserable wretches
allow themselves to be led astray and act differently from
what they declared, I likewise must write differently con-
cerning them ; and first bring their sins before their eyes,
as God commands (Isa. Iviii. i ; Ezek. ii. 7), whether per-
chance some of them may come to their senses ; and, fur-
ther, I would instruct those in authority how to conduct
themselves in this matter.

1 See above, p. 99.

2 Miinzer, the most fanatical, perhaps, of the leaders.

Course of the Protestafit Revolt in Ge7'many 107

With threefold horrible sins against God and men have
these peasants loaded themselves, for which they have
deserved a manifold death of body and soul.

First, they have sworn to their true and gracious rulers to
be submissive and obedient, in accord with God’s command
(Matt. xxii. 21), “Render therefore unto Caesar the things
which are Caesar’s,” and (Rom. xiii. i), “Let every soul
be subject unto the higher powers.” But since they have
deliberately and sacrilegiously abandoned their obedience,
and in addition have dared to oppose their lords, they
have thereby forfeited body and soul, as perfidious, per-
jured, lying, disobedient wretches and scoundrels are wont to
do. Wherefore St. Paul judges them, saying (Rom. xiii. 2),
“And they that resist shall receive to themselves damna-
tion.” The peasants will incur this sentence, sooner or
later ; for God wills that fidelity and allegiance shall be
sacredly kept.

Second, they cause uproar and sacrilegiously rob and
pillage monasteries and castles that do not belong to them,
for which, like public highwaymen and murderers, they de-
serve the twofold death of body and soul. It is right and
lawful to slay at the first opportunity a rebellious person,
who is known as such, for he is already under God’s and the
emperor’s ban. Every man is at once judge and execu-
tioner of a public rebel; just as, when a fire starts, he who
can extinguish it first is the best fellow. Rebellion is not
simply vile murder, but is like a great fire that kindles and
devastates a country ; it fills the land with murder and
bloodshed, makes widows and orphans, and destroys every-
thing, like the greatest calamity. Therefore, whosoever can,
should smite, strangle, and stab, secretly or publicly, and
should remember that there is nothing more poisonous, per-
nicious, and devilish than a rebellious man. Just as one
must slay a mad dog, so, if you do not fight the rebels, they
will fight you, and the whole country with you.

Third, they cloak their frightful and revolting sins with
the gospel, call themselves Christian brethren, swear alle-
giance, and compel people to join them in such abominations.

Three

horrible sins
of the
peasants.

The princes
cannot be
too cruel.

254. The
Augsburg
Confession.

io8 Readings in European History

Thereby they become the greatest blasphemers and violators
of God’s holy name, and serve and honor the devil under
the semblance of the gospel, so that they have ten times
deserved death of body and soul, for never have I heard
of uglier sins. And I believe also that the devil foresees
the judgment day, that he undertakes such an unheard-of
measure ; as if he said, ‘‘ It is the last and therefore it
shall be the worst ; I ’ll stir up the dregs and knock the
very bottom out.” May the Lord restrain him ! Lo, how
mighty a prince is the devil, how he holds the world in
his hands and can put it to confusion : who else could
so soon capture so many thousands of peasants, lead them
astray, blind and deceive them, stir them to revolt, and
make them the willing executioners of his malice. . . .

And should the peasants prevail (which God forbid!), —
for all things are possible to God, and we know not but
that he is preparing for the judgment day, which cannot
be far distant, and may purpose to destroy, by means of the
devil, all order and authority and throw the world into wild
chaos, — yet surely they who are found, sword in hand, shall
perish in the wreck with clear consciences, leaving to the
devil the kingdom of this world and receiving instead the
eternal kingdom. For we are come upon such strange times
that a prince may more easily win heaven by the shedding
of blood than others by prayers.

II. The Augsburg Confession (1530)

The Augs.burg Confession would fill some thirty pages
of this volume.^ The extracts here given relate to some
of the most important contentions of the Protestants.
They illustrate, too, the moderate and conciliatory tone
of the document — which was drawn up by Melanchthon
— as compared with Luther’s fervid denunciations of the
old Church.

1 A complete English translation is published by the Lutheran Pub-
lication Society (Philadelphia) and sold for 10 cents.

Course of the Protestant Revolt in Germany 1 09

Most Invincible Emperor, CasarA ugustus, Most Clement Master:

Inasmuch as your Imperial Majesty has summoned a
diet of the empire at Augsburg to deliberate in regard to
resistance to the Turk, the most atrocious hereditary and
ancient enemy of the Christian name and religion ; and
moreover to treat of the dissensions in the matter of our
holy religion and Christian faith, and in order that, in this
matter of religion, the opinions and judgments of the vari-
ous parties may be considered in each other’s presence,
in mutual charity, meekness, and gentleness, so that those
things which in the writings of either side have been under-
stood amiss, being corrected, all things may be harmonized
and brought back to the one simple truth and Christian
concord, and that hereafter the one unfeigned and true reli-
gion may be embraced and preserved by us, so that, as w’e
are subjects and soldiers of the one Christ, so also, in unity
and concord, we may live in the one Christian Church ; . . .
therefore, in order that we may do homage to the will of
your Imperial Majesty, we now offer in the matter of reli-
gion the “ Confession ” of our preachers and of ourselves,
the doctrine of which, derived from the Holy Scriptures,
and the pure word of God, they have hitherto set forth in
our lands, dukedoms, domains, and cities, and have taught
in the churches.

In the first part of the Confession the Protestants
seek to prove that there is nothing in their doctrines at
variance Avith those of the universal Church, “or even of
the Roman Church, so far as that church is known in the
writings of the fathers.” In the second part they justify
themselves for not including in the Confession certain
beliefs and practices which they hold to be abuses that
had crept into the Church by the fault of the times, as,
for example, the monastic vows.

What is taught amongst us touching the vows of monks
will be better understood if one call to mind what has been

Preface,
addressed to
Charles V.
(Condensed.)

Of perpetual
monastic

vows.

The monastic
life overrated.

no Readings in European History

the condition of the monasiteries, and how many things have
every day been committed in them contrary to the rules.
In Augustine’s time monastic brotherhoods were free ; but
afterward, when discipline was corrupted, vows were every-
where laid upon them, in order that, by establishing a new
kind of prison, the discipline might be restored again.
Besides vows, many other observances were added little by
little. And these bonds and snares were cast upon many
before they came to ripe years, contrary to the rules ; many
through error fell into this kind of life unawares, who, though
they wanted not years, yet wanted discretion to judge of
their strength and ability to lead the monastic life. They
who were once got within these nets were constrained to
abide in them, though, by exceptions provided for in the
rules, some might be set at liberty. Conditions were even
worse in the monasteries of nuns than in those of monks,
although the weaker sex ought more to have been spared.

This rigor and severity have displeased many good men in
the past, when they saw young maids and young men thrust
into monasteries merely with a view of having them sup-
ported there. ... To all these evils there was added such
an exalted esteem of vows as, is well known, did in former
times displease even the monks themselves, — if any of them
perchance were somewhat wiser than the rest. The advo-
cates of monasticism taught that vows were equal to bap-
tism ; they taught that by this kind of life they merited
remission of sins and justification before God ; yea, they
added that the monk’s life did not only merit righteousness
before God, but more than that, because it observed not
only the commandments but also the counsels of the gospel.
And thus they taught that the monk’s profession was better
than baptism, that the monk’s life did merit more than the
life of magistrates, of pastors, and such like, who, in obedi-
ence to God’s commandment, followed their calling, without
any such religion of man’s making. , . .

The people do also conceive many pernicious opinions
from these false commendations of the monastic life. They
hear celibacy praised above measure ; therefore they do

Course of the Protestant Revolt in Germany

1 1 1

violence to their conscience if they live in marriage. They
hear that mendicants only are perfect ; therefore they outrage
their conscience if they keep their possessions and buy and
sell. Others think that all magistracy and civil offices are un-
worthy a Christian man. We read of examples of men who,
forsaking wedlock and leaving the government of the com-
monwealth, have hid themselves in monasteries. This they
called flying from the world and seeking a kind of life which
is more acceptable to God ; neither do they see that God is
to be served in those commandments which he himself hath
delivered, not in the commandments which are devised by
men. That is a good and perfect kind of life which hath
the commandment of God for it. . . .

There have been great controversies touching the power
of bishops ; in which many have improperly mingled to-
gether the ecclesiastical power and the power of the sword.
And out of this confusion there have sprung very great wars
and tumults ; while that the pontiffs, trusting in the power
of the keys, have not only appointed new kinds of service,
and burdened men’s consciences by reserving of cases and
by violent excommunications, but have also endeavored to
transfer worldly kingdoms from one to another, and to de-
spoil emperors of their power and authority.

These several faults did godly and learned men long since
reprehend in the Church ; and for that cause our teachers
were compelled, for the comfort of men’s consciences, to
show the difference between the ecclesiastical power and
the power of the sword. And they have taught that both of
them, because of God’s commandment, are dutifully to be
reverenced and honored as the chiefest blessings of God
upon earth. . . .

Wherefore the ecclesiastical and civil powers are not to be
confounded. The ecclesiastical power hath its own com-
mandment to preach the gospel and administer the sacra-
ments. Let it not by force enter into the office of another ;
let it not transfer worldly kingdoms ; let it not abrogate the
magistrates’ laws ; let it not withdraw from them lawful

Of the
temporal
power of
the clergy.

The Protes-
tants demand
that civil and
ecclesiastical
concerns be
carefully dis-
tinguished.

I 12

Readings in Eiu'opean History

Conclusion
of the
Augsburg
Confession.

obedience ; let it not hinder judgments touching any civil
ordinances or contracts; . , . for Christ saith, “My kingdom
is not of this world” (John xviii. 36).

After similar criticisms of various practices in the old
Church, the Protestant princes conclude as follows :

These are the principal articles which seem to be matters
of controversy ; for although we might speak of more abuses,
yet, that we may avoid undue length, we have mentioned
a few only, from which it is easy to judge of the others.
Great have been the complaints about indulgences, about
pilgrimages, about the abuse of excommunication. The
parishes have been vexed in manifold ways by the stationarii.
Endless contentions have arisen between the pastors and
the monks about parochial law, about confession, about
burials, about sermons on extraordinary occasions, and
about other things without number. Things of this sort we
pass over, that the matters of greatest consequence, being
briefly set forth, may more easily be noted. Nor has any-
thing been here said or adduced for the purpose of casting
reproach on any one. Those things also have been enumer-
ated which it seemed necessary to say, in order that it might
be understood that in doctrine and ceremonials among us
there is nothing received contrary to Scripture or to the
Catholic [i.e. universal] Church, inasmuch as it is manifest
that we have diligently taken heed that no new and godless
doctrines should creep into our churches. . . .

Your Imperial Majesty’s most faithful and humble servants,

John, Duke of Saxony, Elector.

George, Margrave of Brandenburg.

Ernest, Duke of Liineburg.

Philip, Landgrave of Hesse.

John Frederick, Duke of Saxony.

Francis, Duke of Liineburg.

Wolfgang, Prince of Anhalt.

Senate and Magistracy of Nuremberg.

Senate of Reutlingen.

Course of the Protestant Revolt in Germany 1 1 3

III. The Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555)

Charles V delegated to Ferdinand, his brother and
successor on the imperial throne, the tedious task of
coming to an understanding with the Lutheran party in
Germany. The outcome of the negotiations was the
Peace of Augsburg, a diffuse document, of which the
chief provisions are given below.

Constitution of the Peace between their Imperial and Royal
Majesties, on the one hand, ajid the electors a?id estates of the
realm, on the other :

We, Ferdinand, by God’s grace king of the Romans and
at all times widener of the empire, king of Germany, Hun-
gary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia, infanta of
Spain, archduke of Austria, etc., etc., — Whereas, at all the
diets held during the last thirty years and more, and at sev-
eral special sessions besides, there have often been negotia-
tions and consultations to establish between the estates of
the Holy Empire a general, continuous, and enduring peace
in regard to the contending religions ; and several times
terms of peace were drawn up, which, however, were never
sufficient for the maintenance of peace, but in spite of them
the estates of the Empire remained continually in bitterness
and distrust toward each other, from which not a little evil
has had its origin ; . . . to secure again peace and confi-
dence, in the minds of the estates and subjects toward each
other, and to save the German nation, our beloved father-
land, from final dissolution and ruin ; we, on the one hand,
have united and agreed with the electors, the princes and
estates present, and with the deputies and embassies of
those absent, as they, on the other hand, with us.

I. We therefore establish, will, and command that from
henceforth no one, whatsoever his rank or character, for
any cause, or upon any pretense whatsoever, shall engage
in feuds, or make war upon, rob, seize, invest, or besiege
another. Nor shall he, in person or through any agent,

255. Ex-
tracts from
the Reli-
gious Peace
ofAugsburg.

General

peace

throughout
the land
proclaimed.

Readings in Em^opean History

114

The

emperor
engages not
to trouble
the adher-
ents of the
Augsburg
Confession.

descend upon any castle, town, manor, fortification, villages,
estates, hamlets, or against the will of that other seize them
wickedly with violence, or damage them by fire or in other
ways. Nor shall any one give such offenders counsel or
help, or render them aid and assistance in any other way.
Nor shall one knowingly or willingly show them hospitality,
house them, give them to eat or drink, keep or suffer them.
But every one shall love the other with true friendship and
Christian love. It is provided also that no estate or mem-
ber of the Holy Empire shall deprive or cut off any other
estate from free access to provisions and food, or interfere
with its trade, rents, money, or income; for justice should
be administered not irregularly but in suitable and fixed
places. In every way shall his Imperial Majesty, and we,
and all the estates, mutually adhere to all the contents of
this present religious and general constitution for securing
the peace of the land.

2. And in order that such peace, which is especially
necessary in view of the divided religions, as is seen from
the causes before mentioned, and is demanded by the sad
necessity of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation,
may be the better established and made secure and enduring
between his Roman Imperial Majesty and us, on the one
hand, and the electors, princes, and estates of the Holy
Empire of the German nation on the other, thereforej his
Imperial Majesty, and we, and the electors, princes, and
estates of the Holy Empire will not make war upon any estate
of the empire on account of the Augsburg Confession and the
doctrine, religion, and faith of the same, nor injure nor do
violence to those estates that hold it, nor force them, against
their conscience, knowledge, and will, to abandon the religion,
faith, church usages, ordinances, and ceremonies of the
Augsburg Confession, where these have been established,
or may hereafter be established, in their principalities,
lands, and dominions.! Nor shall we, through mandate or
in any other way, trouble or disparage them, but shall let
them quietly and peacefully enjoy their religion, faith,
church usages, ordinances, and ceremonies, as well as their

Com'se of the Protestant Revolt in Germa7iy 1 1 5

possessions, real and personal property, lands, people, domin-
ions, governments, honors, and rights. . . .

3. On the other hand, the estates that have accepted the
Augsburg Confession shall suffer his Imperial Majesty, us,
and the electors, princes, and other estates of the Holy Em-
pire, adhering to the old religion, to abide in like manner
t by their religion, faith, church usages, ordinances, and cere-
monies. They shall also leave undisturbed their possessions,
real and personal property, lands, people, dominions, govern-
ment, honors, and rights, rents, interest, and tithes. . . .

5. But all others who are not adherents of either of the
above-mentioned religions are not included in this peace,
but shall be altogether excluded.

6. And since, in the negotiation of this peace, there has
been disagreement about what should be done when one or
more of the spiritual estates should abandon the old religion,
on account of the archbishoprics, bishoprics, prelacies, and
benefices that were held by them, about which the adherents
of both religions could not come to an agreement ; therefore,
by the authority of the revered Roman Imperial Majesty,
fully delegated to us, we have established and do hereby
make known, that where an archbishop, bishop, prelate, or
other spiritual incumbent shall depart from our old religion,
he shall immediately abandon, without any opposition or
delay, his archbishopric, bishopric, prelacy, and other benei
fices, with the fruits and incomes that he may have had from!
it, — nevertheless without prejudice to his honor.

7. But since certain estates or their predecessors have con-
fiscated certain foundations, monasteries, and other spirit-
ual possessions, and have applied the income of these to
churches, schools, charitable institutions, and other pur-
poses, such confiscated property, which does not belong to
them, shall (if the holders are immediately subject to the
empire and are estates of the empire, and if the clergy did
not have possession of the said property at the time of the
convention of Passau ^ or since that time) be included in this

1 A preliminary peace concluded in 1552 at the close of Charles V’s
last and unsuccessful war with the Protestant princes.

The Luther-
ans not to
trouble the
Catholics.

All Protes-
tants except
Lutherans
excluded
from the
peace.

The “ eccle-
siastical
reservation.”

Church
property
secularized
before 1552
by Protestant
princes to be
regarded as
confiscated.

Readings in Europeafi Histoiy

1 16

agreement of peace, shall be considered as confiscated, and
shall be regulated by the rules governing each estate in
dealing with confiscated properties. . . .

The prince
to establish
either of the
two religions
and his
subjects to
be free to
emigrate.

Both reli-
gions to be
tolerated
in the free
towns.

10. No estate shall urge another estate, or the subjects
of the same, to embrace its religion.

11. But when our subjects and those of the electors,
princes, and estates, adhering to the old religion or to the
Augsburg Confession, wish, for the sake of their religion,
to go with wife and children to another place in the lands,
principalities, and cities of the electors, princes, and estates of
the Holy Empire, and settle there, such going and coming,
and the sale of property and goods, in return for reasonable
compensation for serfdom and arrears of taxes, . . , shall be
everywhere unhindered, permitted, and granted. . . .

13. And in such peace the free knights who are imme-
diately subject to his Imperial Majesty and us, shall also
be included ; and it is further provided that they shall not
be interfered with, persecuted, or troubled by any one on
account of either of the aforesaid religions.

14. But since in many free and imperial cities both
religions — namely, our old religion and that of the Augs-
burg Confession — have hitherto come into existence and
practice, the same shall remain hereafter and be held in the
same cities ; and citizens and inhabitants of the said free
and imperial cities, whether spiritual or secular in rank,
shall peacefully and quietly dwell with one another; and no
party shall venture to abolish the religion, church customs, or
ceremonies of the other, or persecute them therefor. . . .

The imperial 19. Also herewith, and by the authority of this our im-
perial edict, we command and order the judges of the
Catholics and imperial courts, and their colleagues, to hold and conduct
Protestants themselves in conformity with this treaty of peace, as well
as to give fitting and necessary relief of the law to the
appealing suitors themselves, no matter to which of the
aforesaid religions they belong, and against all such to
recognize and decree no citation, mandate, or process. . . .

Coitrse of the Protestant Revolt in Germany 1 1 7

Given in the imperial city of Augsburg belonging to us
[namely, Charles V], King Ferdinand, and to the Holy Empire,
on the twenty-fifth day of the month of September, since the
birth of Christ our dear Lord one thousand five hundred and
fifty-five, in the twenty-fifth year of our reign as emperor and
in the twenty-ninth as ruler of our other realms.

Ferdinand

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Revolt of the Knights: Hausser, Period of the Refor7nation,^^. 72-
87 ; Henderson, Short History of Germany^ Vol. I, pp. 285-307.

Peasant War : Hausser, pp. 92-105 ; Henderson, Vol. I, pp. 308-
332 ; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, pp. 1 74-197 ; KoSTLiN, Life
of Luther, pp. 304-324.

Progress of Protestantism before 1530 : Dyer, Modern Europe,
Vol. II, pp. 50-67; Cambridge Mode^'n History, Vol. II, pp. 142-173
and 197-205.

Diet of Augsburg: Dyer, Vol. II, pp. 92-99; Kostlin, pp. 402-426.

The Schmalkaldic War: Johnson, Europe hi the Sixteenth Cen-
tury, pp. 220-252 ; Henderson, Vol. I, pp. 363-394; Cambridge Modern
History, Vol. II, pp. 232-279.

Janssen, History of the German People, Vol. IV, pp. 121-369, “ The
Social Revelation.” Vols. V-VI carry the history of Germany down
to the “so-called ‘religious peace of Augsburg.’ ”

Ranke, History of the Reformation, Vols. II and III. The German
original covers the period to 1555, but the English translation closes
with the year 1 534.

Armstrong, History of Charles V, 2 vols., 1902. Best recent account.

Bezold, Lamprecht, and Egelhaaf (see above, pp. 51 sq.) cover
this period.

Hefele, Conciliengeschichte. Vol. IX, by Cardinal Hergenrother,
comes down to 1536.

Pastor, Die kirchlichen Reunionsbestrebungen wdhrend der Regie-
rung Karls V, Freiburg, 1879.

SCHADE, Satiren und Pasquille aus der Reformationszeit, 3 vols.,
1863. A curious collection of the popular verses and pamphlets, often
humorous or semi-humorous, relating to the topics of the time. Indis-
pensable to an understanding of popular feeling.

Baumgarten, Geschichte Karls V, 3 vols., 1885-1892. Coming down
to 1539.

A. Refer-
ences,

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

C. Materials
for advanced,
study.

CHAPTER XXVII

256. The
first dispu-
tation at
Zurich in
which
Zwingli
defended his
teachings

(1523)-

Zwingli offers
to defend his
preaching.
(Condensed.)

THE PROTESTANT REVOLT IN SWITZERLAND AND
ENGLAND

I. Zwingli and the Reformation at Zurich

The teachings of Zwingli were regarded by some,
including the bishop of Constance, as dangerous if not
heretical. In the hope of coming at the truth, the burgo-
master of Zurich summoned the clergy of the region to
a conference in January, 1523. The discussion given
below between Zwingli and the vicar of the bishop of
Constance admirably illustrates a great contrast between
the Protestant and the Catholic points of view.^

Then Master Ulrich Zwingli spoke as follows : “ Pious
brothers in Christ, you know that now in our time, as also
for many years heretofore, the pure, clear, and bright light,
the word of God, has been so dimmed and confused and
darkened with human ambitions and teachings that the
majority who call themselves Christians know but little of
the divine will. But by their own invented service of God, by
their own holiness, by external acts founded upon customs
and law, they have gone astray ; and the simple-minded have
been so influenced by those whom people consider learned
guides that they think that such invented external worship
is spiritual, although all our true happiness, consolation, and
good consist, not in our merits, nor in such external works,
but rather alone in Jesus Christ our Saviour. His will and

1 The extracts here given are taken from the report of Hegenwald,
a schoolmaster of Zurich and a friend of Zwingli’s. For the whole
document, see Selected Works of Huldreich Zwingli, edited by S. M.
Jackson, New York, 1901.

118

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 1 1 9

true service we can learn and discover only from his true
word in the Holy Scriptures and in the trustworthy writings
of his twelve apostles, otherwise from no human laws and
statutes.

“ And although I know that for the past five years I
have preached in this city of Zurich nothing but the true,
pure, and clear word of God, the holy gospel, — the joyous
message of Christ, — still I am maligned by many as a here-
tic, a liar, a deceiver, and one disobedient to the Christian
Church. Wherefore I offer here to justify myself to all who
think that my sermons or teachings are unchristian or heret-
ical, and to answer kindly and without anger. Now let them
speak, in the name of God. Here I am.”

At these remarks of Master Ulrich, the vicar from Con-
stance arose, and answered as follows : “ My good fellow-
brother, Master Ulrich, asserts that he has always preached
the holy gospel here publicly in Zurich, — of which I have
no doubt, for who would not truly and faithfully preach the
holy gospel and St. Paul, providing God had ordained him
as a preacher ? For I am also a preacher, or priest, though
perhaps unworthy, but nevertheless I have taught those in-
trusted to me for instruction in the word of God. . . .

“ But if there is a desire to dispute and oppose good old
customs, the ways and usages of the past, then in such case
I say that I shall not undertake to dispute anything here at
Zurich. For, as I think, such matters are to be settled by
a general Christian assembly of all nations, or by a council
of bishops and other scholars such as are found at univer-
sities, just as occurred in times past among the holy apostles
in Jerusalem, as we read in Acts xv. For if such matters
touching the common customs and the laudable usages of
the past were here discussed, and some decision reached
against them, such changes would perhaps not please other
Christians dwelling in other places, who would doubtless
assert that they had not consented to our views. For what
would those in Spain, in Italy, in France, and in the North,
say about it? . . . Accordingly, such matters should, in
my opinion, be brought before the universities at Paris,

The bishop’s
vicar replies
to Zwingli.

Zwingli
defends the
right of
discussion.

120 Readings in European History

Cologne, or Louvain.” (Here all laughed, for Zwingli inter-
rupted by asking : “ How about Erfurt ? Would not Witten-
berg do ? ” Then the vicar said, “ No, Luther is too near.”
He also said, “All bad things come from the North.”)
“ There one can find many versed in the Scriptures, who
have ability to handle so great subjects.” . . .

Then Master Ulrich Zwingli spoke as follows : “ Pious
brothers in Christ, the worthy lord vicar seeks many eva-
sions and subterfuges, for he claims that he does not desire
to discuss the good old customs ; but I say that we should
not ask here how long this or that custom or habit has pre-
vailed. Our aim is to find out whether a man is bound by
divine ordinance to keep that which on account of long
usage has been set up as law by men. For we of course
think (as also the pope’s own decree says) that custom
should yield to truth. As to claiming that such matters
should be settled by a Christian assembly of all nations,
or by a council of bishops, etc., I say that here in this room
there is without doubt a Christian assembly. For I hope
that the majority of us here desire, by the divine will and
love, to hear and know the truth, which Almighty God will
not deny us if we desire it to his honor, with right belief
and right hearts. For the Lord says, ‘ Where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst
of them,’ . . . There is then, in spite of what the vicar says,
no reason why we should not discuss these matters, why we
should not speak and decide as to the truth.

“To the objection that the other nations would not con-
sent, I answer that this brings up just the complaint that
is made every day against the ‘bigwigs,’ — the bishops and
priests, — namely, that they undertake to keep the pure and
clear gospel, the Holy Scriptures, from the common people.
For they say that it is not proper for any but themselves to
expound the Scriptures, just as though other pious men were
not Christians and had nothing to do with the spirit of God,
and must be without knowledge of God’s word. And there
are also some of them who might say that it is improper to
publish the secrets of the Divine Scriptures. Would you rob

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 1 2 1

these thirsty souls of the truth, let them remain in doubt,
frighten them by human ordinances, and leave them to live
and die in uncertainty as to the truth ? Really, my pious
brethren, this is no small thing. God will not demand of
us what pope, bishop, and council have established and
commanded, nor how long this or that has been a laudable
and ancient usage ; but he will find out how his divine will,
word, and commandments have been kept.”

At these words of Zwingli’s every one remained silent for
a time, and no one wanted to say anything, till the burgo-
master of Zurich arose and urged any there present who
wished to speak upon the matter, or knew anything to say,
to step forward. But no one spoke.

Meantime Gutschenkel [a buffoon from Berne], standing
in front by the door, cut a ridiculous caper, and cried out :
“ Where are now the ‘ bigwigs ’ that boast so loudly and
bravely on the streets ?' Now step forward ! Here is the
man. You can all boast over your wine, but here no one
stirs.” Everybody laughed at that. . . .

[The vicar then replied :] “ Since I have been summoned
by Master Ulrich, I will say, my dear sirs, that some hun-
dreds of years ago it happened that heresy and dissension
arose in the Church, the causes and beginners of which
were Novatians, Montanists, Sabellians, Ebionites, Marcion-
ites, and others, by whose false teachings and errors many
doctrines like these of our times were planted in men, and
many believing folk were led astray. Among these heretics
some asserted that there was no efficacy in prayers to the
dear saints and the Mother of God, or in their intercession ;
and that purgatory, too, did not exist, but that all these
were man’s invention, and the like. In order to close up
such ways of error many pious bishops and fathers met in
many places, at one time in Asia, then in Africa, then some-
where in Greece, that they might hold synods and councils,
to put a stop to heresy and such things. And afterward
ordinances and decisions were made by the holy fathers
and the popes, that such heretical views should not be held,
having been rejected by the Christian Church.

The vicar
recalls the
great here-
sies of the
past.

Three phases
of Calvin’s
work and
influence.

1 2 2 Readmgs in European Histo?y

“ And although this was firmly and irrevocably ratified
a long time ago by decrees of the popes and bishops, still
later schisms, dissenting parties, and sects have sprung up
in Europe, — for instance, the Bohemians and the Beghards,
who were led astray by such heretics as WyclifEe and Huss,
living contrary to the decrees and ordinances of the holy
popes, acting contrary to the regulations of the Christian
Church, and putting no faith in the intercession of the saints
and still less in purgatory.

“ Although such heresy and error were later rejected by
all men of Christian belief, and although those who live and
remain in such error were considered, recognized, and pro-
claimed by the holy councils as sundered members of the
mother of Christian churches, still one now finds those who
stir up these things anew and who undertake to question that
which many years ago was recognized and decided upon by
pope and bishop as untrue and erroneous. They undertake
to drive us from old customs which have endured and stood
in honor these seven hundred years, planning to overturn
and upset all things. For first they went at the pope, car-
dinals, and bishops ; then they turned all the cloisters topsy-
turvy ; after that they fell upon purgatory. And finally they
ascended to heaven and attacked the saints and great serv-
ants of God. St. Peter with his keys, and even our dear
Lady, the Mother of God, have not escaped their disgraceful
assaults. And I know of some who have gone so far as
to attack even Christ himself.”

II. Calvin- AND his Work

Perhaps the three most important phases of Calvin’s
work are the following: (i) He was ever the ardent
defender of the Protestants, refuting the calumnies and
criticisms of their opponents, denouncing the papacy, and
exhibiting what he believed to be the weaknesses and fal-
lacies of the Roman Catholic teachings and traditions ;

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 123

(2) he furnished the Protestants with a text-book of
theology, — his Institutes of the Christian Religion, —
which for two or three centuries enjoyed unrivaled
authority among a large and influential class in France,
Scotland, England, and America ; (3) lastly, in the
ordinances drawn up under his influence for the city
of Geneva, he established a system of government, civil
and ecclesiastical, which in its spirit became the ideal of
the various English Puritan sects, as well as of those
who migrated to Holland and New England.

As a preface to the first edition of his Institutes, pub-
lished at Basel shortly after his flight from France, Cal-
vin prepared an address to King Francis I, in which he
briefly states the reasons for the Protestant revolt and
exposes the slanders heaped upon his party.

John Calvin, to the most mighty and noble monarch, Francis,
the most Christian king of the Fre7ich, his sovereign prince
and lord, with peace and salvatioti in the Lord :

When I did first set my hand to this work [i.e. his Insti-
tutes'] I thought nothing less, most illustrious King, than to
write anything to be presented to your Majesty, My mind
was to teach certain rudiments whereby they that are touched
with some zeal of religion might be instructed to true godli-
ness. And this travail I undertook principally for my coun-
trymen, the French, of whom I understood very many to
hunger and thirst for Christ, but few had received so much
as any little knowledge of him. That this was my purpose
the book itself declareth, being framed to a simple and plain
manner of teaching.

But when I perceived that the furious rage of certain
wicked men hath so far prevailed in your realm that in it
there is no room for sound doctrine, I thought I should do
a thing worth my travail if in a single work I should give
both instruction for them whom I proposed to instruct, and

257. Ex-
tracts from
Calvin’s
address to
Francis I
(1536).
(Condensed.)

Aim of the
Institutes.

Calvin adds
to his Insti-
tutes an
“ Apology ”
for the
Protestants.

124

Readings in European History

Accusations
brought
against the
Protestants.

Calvin main-
tains that the
Protestant
teachings are
not new.

send forth an apology to you, whereby you may learn what
manner of doctrine that is against which these furious men
burn in so great rage, who at this day trouble your realm
with sword and fire. For I shall not fear to confess that I
have in this work comprehended in a manner the substance
of that selfsame doctrine against which they cry out that it
ought to be punished with imprisonment, banishment, pro-
scription and fire. . . .

You yourself can bear witness, most noble King, with what
lying slanders our teachings are daily accused unto you : as
that they tend to no other end but to wrest from kings their
scepters out of their hands, to throw down all judges’ seats
and judgments, to subvert all orders and civil governments,
to trouble the peace and quiet of the people, to abolish all
laws, to undo all proprieties and possessions; finally to turn
all things upside down. And yet you hear but the smallest
portion, for they spread among the people horrible things,
which if they were true, the whole world might worthily
judge our cause, with the maintainers thereof, worthy of a
thousand fires and gallows. . . .

Wherefore I do not unjustly require, most victorious King,
that it may please you to take into your own hands the whole
hearing of the cause, which hitherto hath been carelessly
tossed about without any order of law, more by outrageous
hate than judicial gravity. Nor would I have you think that
I here go about to make my own private defense, whereby
I may procure to myself a safe return into my native coun-
try, to which, while I bear such affection of natural love as
becometh me, yet as the case now is I am not miscontent to
remain abroad. But I take upon me the common cause of
all the godly, yea, and the cause of Christ himself, which
at this day, having been by every means torn and trodden
down in your kingdom, lieth as it were in despaired case. . . .

[Our detractors call our teaching] new, and lately forged ;
they cavil that it is doubtful and uncertain ; they demand
by what miracle it is confirmed ; they ask whether it be
meet that it should prevail against the consent of so many
holy fathers and the most ancient customs ; they press upon

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 125

us to confess it to be schismatical, which moveth war against
the Church, or that the true Church hath lain dead through
the many ages in which no such thing hath been heard of.
Last of all, they say that they need no arguments, for (say
they) it may be judged by its fruits of what sort it is, which,
namely, hath bred so big a heap of sects, so many turmoils
of sedition, so great licentiousness of vices. Truly, full easy
it is for them to triumph over a forsaken cause among the
credulous and ignorant multitude, but if we might also have
our turn to speak, verily this sharp haste would soon be
cooled wherewith they do, licentiously and with full mouth,
foam against us.

First, whereas they call it new, they do great wrong to
God, whose holy word deserves not to be accused of new-
ness. To them indeed I nothing doubt that it is new, to
whom Christ is new, and his gospel is new. But they that
know the preaching of Paul to be old, and that Jesus Christ
died for our sins and rose again for our justification, shall
find nothing new among us. Secondly, that it hath long
lain hidden, unknown, and buried, — that is the fault of the
ungodliness of men. Sith it is by the bountifulness of God
restored to us, it ought at least, by right of full restitution,
to receive the title of ancienty.

They may mock at the uncertainty of our teachings, but
if they were driven to seal their own doctrine with their own
blood and with the loss of their lives, men might see how
much they set by it. Far other is our faith, which dreadeth
neither the terrors of death nor yet the very judgment seat
of God. . . .

As for the dilemma into which they would drive us, to
compel us to confess that either the Church hath lain dead
a certain time, or that we have controversy against the real
Church : truly the Church of Christ hath lived and shall
live so long as Christ shall reign at the right hand of the
Father. . . . But they err not a little from the truth when
they acknowledge no church but that which they see with
the present eye, and when they affirm that the form of the
Church is always to be seen ; for they set the true form of the

Protestants
do not assert
that the true
Church
ceased to
exist during
the Middle
Ages.

126

Readings in European History

258. Calvin
on predes-
tination.

Church in the see of Rome and in the order of their prel-
ates. We, on the contrary side, affirm both that the Church
may consist of no visible form, and that the form itself is
not contained in that outward splendor which they foolishly
admire, but hath a far other indication, namely, the pure
teaching of the word of God and the right ministration of
the sacraments. ...

Thus, O King, is the venomous injustice of slanders so
largely spread abroad that you should not too easily believe
their reports. . . . Your mind, though it be now turned
away and estranged from us, yea, even inflamed against
us, yet we trust that we shall be able to recover the favor
thereof. But if the whisperings of the malicious do so pos-
sess your ears that there is no place for accused men to
speak for themselves ; and if those outrageous furies do
still, with your winking at them, exercise cruelty, with pris-
oning, tormenting, mutilating, and burning, — then shall we
indeed, as sheep appointed to the slaughter, be brought to
all extremities, yet so that in our patience we shall possess
our soul and wait for the strong hand of the Lord, which
shall without doubt be present in time and stretch forth
itself armed, both to deliver the poor out of affliction and to
take vengeance on the despisers which now triumph with so
great assuredness.

The Lord, the King of kings, establish your throne with
righteousness and your seat with equity, most noble King.

At Basel, the tenth day before the Kalends of September
[1536].

Nothing in Calvin’s Institzites has made a deeper im-
pression upon posterity than his uncompromising asser-
tion of the doctrine of Predestination.^

^ This is based first and foremost on St. Paul’s Epistle to the
Romans ix. 1 1-23. A little over a century after Calvin first issued his
Fnstitutes a great conclave of Presbyterian divines was summoned in
England by the Long Parliament to formulate the doctrines of the
Church. They held their sessions in Westminster Abbey for several
years (1643-1652) and produced the so-called Westminster Confession

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland a7id England 127

[When Adam fell by partaking of the forbidden fruit his
sin kindled the horrible vengeance of God upon all man-
kind,] After the heavenly image of him was defaced he
did not alone suffer this punishment, that in place of wis-
dom, strength, holiness, truth, and justice — with which orna-
ments he had been adorned — there came in the most hor-
rible pestilences, blindness, weakness, filthiness, emptiness,
and injustice, — but also he entangled and drowned his whole
offspring in the same misery. This is the corruption that
cometh by inheritance, which the old writers called “ori-
ginal sin,” meaning by this word the corruption of nature,
which before was good and pure. About this matter there
has been much contention, because there is nothing further
from common reason than that all men should be made
guilty for one man’s fault, and so sin should become com-
mon to all ; which seemeth to have been the cause why the
oldest doctors of the Church did but darkly touch upon this
point, or at least did not set it out plainly, as would have
been expedient. . . .

We m.ust be content with this, — that such gifts as it
pleased the Lord to have bestowed upon the nature of man
he vested in Adam ; and therefore when Adam lost them
after he had received them, he lost them not only from
himself but also from us all. . . . Therefore from a rotten
root rose up rotten branches, which sent their rottenness
into the twigs that sprang out of them ; for so were the chil-
dren corrupted in their father that they in turn infected their
children. . . ,

And the apostle Paul himself expressly witnesseth that
therefore death came upon all men, because all men have
sinned and are wrapped in original sin and defiled with the
spots thereof. And therefore the very infants themselves,
since they bring with them their own damnation from their
mothers’ womb, are bound not by another’s but by their own
fault. For although they have not as yet brought forth

of Faith. While this is based directly upon the Bible, it is in close
harmony with Calvin’s teachings, and was the form in which Calvinism
was perpetuated in England, Scotland, and America.

Adam’s fall
and “origi-
nal sin.”

128

Readings hi European History

Predesti-

nation.

the fruits of their own iniquity, yet they have the seeds
thereof inclosed within them ; yea, their whole nature is a
certain seed of sin, therefore it cannot but be hateful and
abominable to God. . . . This perversity never ceaseth in
us but continually bringeth forth new fruits, even the same
works of the flesh, like as a burning furnace bloweth out
flame and sparkles.

[By this original corruption man is utterly indisposed,
disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined
to all evil. He is no longer free even to will to do good
works unless he be helped by God’s grace, given only to the
elect whom God, for the manifestation of his glory, has
elected and chosen unto everlasting life.] ^

Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, whereby
he has determined with himself what he wills to become
of every man. For all are not created to like estate ; but
to some eternal life and to some eternal damnation is fore-
ordained. Therefore as every man is created to the one or
the other end, so we say that he is predestinate either to
life or to death.^ . . . Foolish men do divers ways quarrel
with God, as though they had him subject to their accusa-
tions. First, therefore, they ask by what right is the Lord
angry with his creatures by whom he hath not first been
provoked by any offense ; for to condemn to destruction

1 Cf. West7ninster Confession, Chapter VI, p. 4.

2 The English Presbyterian divines at Westminster thus state the
doctrine of predestination : “ By the decree of God, for the manifesta-
tion of his glory, some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting
death. These angels and men, thus predestined and foreordained, are
particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number is so certain
and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished. Those of
mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of
the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose and
the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ
and unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without
any foresight of faith or good works or perseverance in either of them,
or any other thing in the creature as conditions or causes moving him
thereunto, and all to the praise of his glorious grace” (Confessioii of
Faith, Chapter III, 3-5).

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 1 29

whom he will agreeth rather with the willfulness of a tyrant
than with the lawful sentence of a judge. Therefore they
say that there is cause why men should accuse God if by his
forewill, without their own deserving, they be predestinate
to eternal death. If such thoughts do at any time come
into the mind of the godly, this shall suffice to break their
violent assaults, although they have nothing more, if they
consider how great wickedness it is even so much as to
inquire of the causes of the will of God. . . . For the will
of God is the highest rule of righteousness, that whatsoever
he willeth, even for this that he willeth it, ought to be taken
for righteous,^

It was not Calvin but Farel, another French Protes-
tant, who first won the city of Geneva from the old
Church. Farel (1489-1 565) was an ardent missionary
of the new faith, who had succeeded in converting sev-
eral towns in French Switzerland before he went to
Geneva in 1533, Owing to his preaching, a general
assembly of the people proclaimed (May, 1536) that
they wished to live according to the “ holy law of the
gospel and the word of God ” and to desert “all masses,
papal ceremonies and abuses, images and idols.”

Just before Calvin’s coming we have the following
entry in the city council’s register (July 24, 1536) :

John Ballard was interrogated wherefore he refused to
hear the word of God ? He replied that he believed in God,
who taught him by his spirit. He could not believe our
preachers. He said that we could not compel him to go to

1 The following is St. Paul’s reply to the same query ; “ Thou wilt
say then unto me, Why doth he [God] yet find fault ? For who hath
resisted his will ? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against
God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou
made me thus ? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same
lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour ? ”
(Romans ix. 19 jyy.)

Under

Farel’s

influence

Geneva

espouses

Protestant-

ism.

259. Prot-
estant
intolerance
in Geneva
before
Calvin’s
arrival.

Calvin’s
arrival in
Geneva
(August,

1536)-

260. Calvin’s
project for
church gov-
ernment
submitted to
the Geneva
town council
(January,
1537)- .

130 Readings in European History

the sermon against his conscience. . . . We admonished
him that he should within three days obey the proclamation
or show just cause why he should not. He replied, “ I wish
to live according to the gospel of God, but I do not wish to
adopt the interpretation of certain individuals, but to follow
that of the Holy Spirit through the holy mother Church
Universal in which I believe.” Asked to say whether he
would go. to the sermon or no, he replied that his conscience
would not permit him to go, and that he would not act
against its dictates ; for it was directed by a higher author-
ity than that of preachers. Having heard these things, the
council ordered that if he did not obey the proclamations,
and go to the sermon as established, he and his family should
leave the city within ten days.

In August, 1536, Calvin happening to pass through
Geneva, expecting to spend but one night there, was
seized upon by Farel, who, as Calvin reports, “ burning
with a marvelous zeal to advance the gospel, made every
effort to hold me.” Calvin consented to remain.

The town records show that the ministers, Farel, Cal-
vin, and others, were constantly appearing before the
town council to denounce sinful practices and suggest
reforms. The following plan for exercising control over
evil doers by means of excommunication and public
censors was submitted to the town authorities by the
ministers. ’

Our Lord established excommunication as a means of cor-
rection and discipline, by which those who led a disordered
life unworthy of a Christian, and who despised to mend
their ways and return to the strait way after they had been
admonished, should be expelled from the body of the church
and cut off as rotten members until they come to themselves
and acknowledge their fault. . . . We have an example
given by St. Paul (i Tim. i and i Cor. v), in a solemn warn-
ing that we should not keep company with one who is

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 1 3 1

called a Christian but who is, none the less, a fornicator, cov-
etous, an idolater, a railer, a drunkard, or an extortioner. So
if there be in us any fear of God, this ordinance should be
enforced in our Church.

To accomplish this we have determined to petition you
[i.e. the town council] to establish and choose, according,
to your good pleasure, certain persons [namely, the elders]
of upright life and good repute among all the faithful, like-
wise constant and not easy to corrupt, who shall be assigned
and distributed in all parts of the town and have an eye on
the life and conduct of every individual. If one of these see
any obvious vice which is to be reprehended, he shall bring
this to the attention of some one of the ministers, who shall
admonish whoever it may be who is at fault and exhort him
in a brotherly way to correct his ways. If it is apparent that
such remonstrances do no good, he shall be warned that
his obstinacy will be reported to the Church. Then if he
repents, there is in that alone excellent fruit of this form of
discipline. If he will not listen to warnings, it shall be time
for the minister, being informed by those who have the
matter in charge, to declare publicly to the congregation the
efforts which have been made to fering the sinner to amend,
and how all has been in vain.

Should it appear that he proposes to persevere in his
hardness of heart, it shall be time to excommunicate him ;
that is to say, that the offender shall be regarded as cast out
from the companionship of Christians and left in the power
of the devil for his temporal confusion, until he shall give
good proofs of penitence and amendment. In sign of his
casting out he shall be excluded from the communion, and
the faithful shall be forbidden to hold familiar converse with
him. Nevertheless he shall not omit to attend the sermons in
order to receive instruction, so that it may be seen whether
it shall please the Lord to turn his heart to the right way.

The offenses to be corrected in this manner are those
named by St. Paul above, and others like them. When
others than the said deputies — for example, neighbors or
relatives — shall first have knowledge of such offenses, they

System of
censorship
of morals.

Neighbors
invited to
expostulate
with

offenders.

132

Readings in Eni'opea7i History

may make the necessary remonstrances themselves. If they
accomplish nothing, then they shall notify the deputies to
do their duty.

This then is the manner in which it would seem expedient
to us to introduce excommunication into our Church and
maintain it in its full force ; for beyond this form of correc-
tion the Church does not go. But should there be insolent
persons, abandoned to all perversity, who only laugh when
they are excommunicated and do not mind living and dying
in that condition of rejection, it shall be your affair to deter-
mine whether you should long suffer such contempt and
mocking of God to pass unpunished. . . .

If those who agree with us in faith should be punished by
excommunication for their offenses, how much more should
the Church refuse to tolerate those who oppose us in religion ?
The remedy that we have thought of is to petition you to
require all the inhabitants of your city to make a confession
and give an account of their faith, so that you may know who
agree with the gospel and who, on the contrary, would prefer
the kingdom of the pope to the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

The Genevan council jvas not ready, however, to adopt
and enforce Calvin’s plan of excommunication and his
system of censors. There was a large party which dis-
liked Calvin and Farel and their puritanical influences.
These ‘‘liberals” ^ got the upper hand in the town coun-
cil, and banished Calvin and Farel (April, 1538) for refus-
ing to administer the communion in the manner favored
by the council, and for continuing to preach when for-
bidden to do so. But in two or three years the liberals
became unpopular in their turn, and Calvin, after pro-
longed negotiations, reluctantly consented to return to
Geneva, in September, 1541. He was now in a position

1 The French historians of the seventeenth century call this party
libertins^ which means nothing worse than “ liberals.”

Protesta7it Revolt i?i Switzerland and England 133

to hold his own, in spite of the liberals, who nevertheless
continued to give him much trouble for many years.
He immediately submitted his plan of church govern-
ment again, and this time it was adopted. He held that
our Lord had established four orders of officers for gov-
erning his Church, — namely, pastors, teachers, elders,
and deacons. The elders (or presbyters) were laymen
appointed to watch over the morals of their fellows, and
are so conspicuous in Calvin’s plan of organization that
they have given their name to the Presbyterian Church.
He thus describes them :

The office of the elders is to watch over the conduct of
every individual, to admonish lovingly those whom they see
doing wrong or leading an irregular life. When there is
need, they should lay the matter, before the body deputed
to inflict paternal discipline [i.e. the consistory], of which
they are members. As the Church is organized, it is best
that the elders be chosen, two from the small council, four
from the council of sixty, and six from the council of two
hundred^; they should be men of good life and honest,
without reproach and beyond suspicion, above all God-fear-
ing and endowed with spiritual prudence. And they should
be so chosen that they be distributed in each quarter of the
city, so that they can have an eye on everything.^ . . .

The elders, who have been described, shall assemble once
a week with the ministers, namely Thursday morning, to
see if there be any disorders in the Church and discuss
together such remedies as shall be necessary. ... If any
one shall in contempt refuse to appear before them, it shall
be their duty to inform the council, so that it may supply a
remedy.

261. The
duties of the
elders, or
presb^ers.

The consis-
tory, or
session.

^ This refers to the different bodies which constituted the city
government.

2 It is interesting to compare this conception of excommunication
and of government by lay elders with the system of the Catholic Church.

134

Readings m European History

262. Ex-
tracts from
Calvin’s
regulations
for the vil-
lages about
Geneva.

Persecution
of Catholics

The rules made for the villages under the supremacy
of Geneva show the actual scope of the religious control.

The whole household shall attend the sermons on Sunday,
except when some one shall be left at home to tend the
children or cattle.

If there is preaching on week days, all who can must
come, — unless there be some good excuse, — so that at
least one from each household shall be present. Those who
have men-servants or maid-servants shall bring them when
it is possible, so that they shall not live like beasts without
instruction. . . . Should any one come after the sermon
has begun, let him be warned. If he does not amend, let
him pay a fine of three sous. Let the churches be closed
except during service, so that no one may enter them at
other hours from superstitious motives. If any one be dis-
covered engaged in some superstition within or near the
church, let him be admonished. If he will not give up his
superstition, let him be punished.

Those who are found to have rosaries or idols to adore,
let them be sent before the consistory, and in addition to the
reproof they receive there, let them be sent before the coun-
cil. Let the same be done with those who go on a pilgrim-
age. Those who observe feasts or papistical fasts shall only
be admonished. Those who go to mass shall, besides being
admonished, be sent before the council, and it shall consider
the propriety of punishing the offenders by imprisonment or
special fines, as it judges best.

He who blasphemes, swearing by the body or blood of
our Lord, or in like manner, shall kiss the earth for the first
offense, pay five sous for the second and ten for the third.
He who contradicts the word of God shall be sent before
the consistory for reproof, or before the council for punish-
ment, as the case may require. If any one sings indecent,
licentious songs, or dances en virollet or otherwise, he shall
be kept in prison three days and then sent to the council,^

1 There are similar provisions for drunkenness, gambling, quarreling,
taking more than five per cent interest, etc.

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and Engla^id 135

III. The English Humanists : Colet and More

Erasmus appears to have first visited England in 1499,
when he crossed the Channel with a young English
nobleman, Lord Mountjoy, to whom he had been giving
private instruction in Paris. Erasmus writes :

I was staying at Lord Mountjoy’s country house, when
Thomas More came to see me, and took me out with him for
a walk as far as the next village, where the king’s children
were being educated. When we came into the hall the
attendants of the palace were assembled, and in the midst
stood Prince Henry, then nine years old, having already
something of royalty in his demeanor, in which there was a
certain dignity combined with singular courtesy. On his
right was Margaret, about eleven years of age, afterward
married to James, king of the Scots.

Erasmus determined to make a short visit to Oxford,
and there received a letter of welcome from Colet. To
this he graciously replied :

If, most courteous Colet, I recognized in myself anything
worthy of the meanest praise, I should indeed rejoice to be
praised by you, who are of all men most praised, and whose
judgment I regard so highly that your silent esteem would
be more agreeable to me than if I were acclaimed and
applauded by the whole Forum of Rome. . . .

You will find in me a man of slender fortune, or rather of
none at all, averse from ambition, most inclined to friend-
ship, little skilled indeed in letters, but a most warm admirer
of them ; one that religiously venerates goodness in others,
but thinks nothing of his own ; who is ready to yield to all
in learning, to none in honesty ; simple, open, free, ignorant
alike of simulation and of dissimulation ; of a timid but
upright character, sparing of words ; a person, in short,
from whom, except character, you have nothing to expect.
If you, Colet, can love such a man ; if you deem him worthy

263. Eras-
mus meets
Sir Thomas
More and
the young
Henry VIII
(1499).
(Slightly
condensed.)

264. Eras-
mus de-
scribes
himself.
(Slightly
condensed.)

Erasmus de-
scribes Colet.

265. More’s
own account
of his busy
life (1516).
(Slightly
condensed.)

136 Readings in Enropean History

of your friendship, — then set down Erasmus as completely
your own.

Your England is delightful to me for many reasons, but
most of all because it abounds in that which pleases me
more than anything else, — I mean in men most proficient
in good letters, among whom, by general consent, I reckon
you the chief. Such is your learning that, even without
the recommendation of your high character, you deserve
to be universally admired ; and such is the holiness of your
life that, even if you had no learning to commend you,
you could not fail to be held in love, respect, and vener-
ation by all.

More writes to a friend of how he spends his days.

Whiles I do daily bestow my time about law matters . . .
whiles I go one way to see and visit my friend, another way
about my own private affairs ; whiles I spend all the day
abroad among others, and the residue at home among mine
own, — I leave to myself — I mean to my book — no time.
For when I am come home, I must commune with my wife,
chat with my children, and talk with my servants.

All the which things I reckon and account among business,
forasmuch as they must of necessity be done ; and done
must they needs be, unless a man will be a stranger in his
own house. And in any wise a man must so fashion and
order his condition, and so appoint and dispose himself, that
he be merry, jocund, and pleasant among them whom either
nature hath provided, or chance hath made, or he himself
hath chosen, to be the fellows and companions of his life.

Among these things now rehearsed stealeth away the day,
the month, the year. When do I write, then ? And all this
while have I spoken no word of sleep, neither yet of meat,
which among a great number doth waste no less time than
doth sleep, wherein almost half the lifetime of man creepeth
away. I therefore do win and get only that time which I
steal from sleep and meat. Which time, because it is very
little, and yet somewhat it is, therefore I have at last, though
it be long first, finished my Utopia.

P}'otesta7it Revolt in Szvitzerlmid and Engla^id 137

IV. Henry VIII, Wolsey, and Queen Catherine

The sagacious Venetian ambassador, Giustiniani, thus
describes King Henry VIII, Queen Catherine, and Wol-
sey, in 1519:

His Majesty is twenty-nine years old and extremely hand-
some ; nature could not have done more for him. He is
much handsomer than any other sovereign in Christendom ;
a great deal handsomer than the king of France ; very fair,
and his whole frame admirably proportioned. On hearing
that Francis I wore a beard, he allowed his own to grow,
and, as it is reddish, he has now a beard that looks like gold.
He is very accomplished, a good musician, composes well,
is a most capital horseman, a fine jouster, speaks good
French, Latin, and Spanish ; is very religious, — hears three
masses daily when he hunts, and sometimes five on other
days. He hears the office every day in the queen’s chamber,
— that is to say, vespers and compline.

He is very fond of hunting, and never takes his diversion
without tiring eight or ten horses, which he causes to be
stationed beforehand along the line of country he means to
take ; and when one is tired he mounts another, and before
he gets home they are all exhausted. He is extremely fond
of tennis, at which game it is the prettiest thing in the world
to see him play, his fair skin glowing through a shirt of
finest texture. He gambles with the French hostages, to the
amount occasionally, it is said, of from six thousand to eight
thousand ducats in a day.

He is affable and gracious, harms no one, does not covet
his neighbor’s goods, and is satisfied with his own domin-
ions, having often said to me, “ Sir ambassador, we want
all potentates to content themselves with their own terri-
tories ; we are satisfied with this island of ours.” He seems
extremely desirous of peace.

He is very rich. His father left him ten millions of ready
money in gold, of which he is supposed to have spent one
half in the war against France, when he had three armies

266. A
Venetian
ambas-
sador’s de-
scription of
Henry VIII,
Queen
Catherine,
and Wolsey.

The king’s

athletic

tastes.

Readings in Etiropean History

Queen

Catherine

Cardinal

Wolsey.

on foot : one crossed the Channel with him, another was
in the field against Scotland, and the third remained with
the queen in reserve. . . .

The queen is the sister of the mother of the king of
Spain, now styled King of the Romans. She is thirty-five
years old and not handsome, though she has a very beau-
tiful complexion. She is religious, and as virtuous as words
can express. I have seen her but seldom.

The cardinal of York is of low origin, and has two
brothers, one of whom holds an untitled benefice, and the
other is pushing his fortune. He rules both the king and
the entire kingdom. On my first arrival in England he used
to say to me, “ His Majesty will do so and so.” Subse-
quently, by degrees, he forgot himself, and commenced say-
ing, “ We shall do so and so.” At this present he has
reached such a pitch that he says, “ I shall do so and so.”
He is about forty-six years old, very handsome, learned,
extremely eloquent, of vast ability, and indefatigable. He
alone transacts as much business as that which occupies
all the magistracies, offices, and councils of Venice, both
civil and criminal ; and all state affairs likewise are managed
by him, let their nature be what it may.

Henry VIII
proposes to
divorce
Catherine.

Early in 1527 King Henry VIII determined to obtain
a divorce from Catherine, and soon announced to her that
they must separate. Wolsey then reluctantly induced
Pope Clement VII to send a legate, Cardinal Campeg-
gio, to England, who, with Wolsey, was to hold a court
to determine whether the dispensation granted to Henry
to marry his brother’s widow was sufificient and valid
under the circumstances. The trial was begun in May,
1 5 29. When Queen Catherine was called upon in court
she rose from her chair and came to the king, and, kneel-
ing down at his feet, said :

“ Sir, in what have I offended you ? or what occasion of
displeasure have I given you, intending thus to put me from

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland a7id E^igland 1 39

you? I take God to be my judge, I have been to you a
true and humble wife, ever conformable to your will and
pleasure ; never contradicting or gainsaying you in any-
thing ; being always contented with all things wherein you
had any delight or took any pleasure, without grudge, or
countenance of discontent or displeasure. I loved, for your
sake, all them whom you loved, whether I had cause or no ;
whether they were my friends or my enemies.

“ I have been your wife these twenty years or more, and
you have had by me divers children ; and when you had
me first, I take God to be my judge, that I was a maid.
Whether it be true or no, I put it to your own conscience.
If there be any just cause that you can allege against me,
either of dishonesty, or matter lawful to put me from you,
I am content to depart, to my shame and confusion ; and
if there be none, then I pray you to let me have justice at
your hands.

“The king, your father, was, in his time, of such an excel-
lent wit, that he was accounted amongst all men for wisdom
to be a second Solomon ; and the king of Spain, my father,
Ferdinand, was accounted one of the wisest princes that
had reigned in Spain for many years. It is not, therefore,
to be doubted, but that they had gathered as wise counselors
unto them, of every realm, as in their wisdom they thought
meet. And I conceive that there were in those days as wise
and well-learned men, in both the realms, as be now at this
day, who thought the marriage between you and me good
and lawful. Therefore it is a wonder to me what new inven-
tions are now invented against me. And now to put me to
stand to the order and judgment of this court seems very
unreasonable. ... I humbly pray you to spare me until
I may know what counsel my friends in Spain will advise me
to take ; and if you will not, then your pleasure be fulfilled.”
And with that she rose up and departed, nevermore appear-
ing in any court.

Catherine’s friends, however, induced the pope to
evoke the case to Rome, and so quite removed the

267. Queen
Catherine’s
protest
against
Henry’s
plan to rid
himself of
her (1529).

140

Readings in European History

268. Wol-
sey’s piteous
appeal to
Henry VIII
(October,

1529)-

whole matter from Wolsey’s control. He thereby forfeited
the king’s favor, and Sir Thomas More was appointed
chancellor in his stead. A few months after the trial
(October, 1529) we find Wolsey writing piteously to the
disappointed monarch.

Most gracious a?id merciful Sovereign Lord :

Though that I, your poor, heavy, and wretched priest, do
daily pursue, cry, and call upon your Royal Majesty for grace,
mercy, remission, and pardon, yet in most humble wise I
beseech your Highness not to think that it proceedeth of
any mistrust that I have in your merciful goodness, nor that
I would encumber or molest your Majesty by any indiscreet
or inopportune suit ; but that the same only cometh of an
inward and ardent desire that I have continually to declare
unto your Highness how that, wot unto God, I neither desire
nor covet anything in this world but the attaining of your
gracious favor and forgiveness of my trespass.

And for this cause I cannot desist nor forbear, but to
be a continual and most lowly suppliant to your benign
grace. For surely, most gracious king, the remembrance of
my folly, with the sharp word of your Highness’ displeasure,
hath so penetrated my heart that I cannot but lamentably
cry and say, “It is sufficient.” Now withhold thy hand,
most merciful king. Forgive and ye shall be forgiven. . . .

Your Grace’s most prostrate, poor chaplain,
creature, and beadsman,

Thomas, Cardinal York, most unhappy.

V. Henry VIII repudiates the Headship of the Pope

The pope excommunicated Henry in 1533 for repu-
diating Catherine. The king replied by extorting from
the English bishops, abbots, and priests written acknowl-
edgments that the Roman pontiff had no more authority
than any other foreign bishop. In the spring of 1534
Parliament passed an act regulating the succession to

Protestant Revolt in Switzerla7id and Englajid 14 1

the crown. This declared Henry’s marriage with Cath-
erine void and against the laws of Almighty God ; his
marriage with Anne Boleyn was pronounced good and
consonant with God’s laws. The crown was to descend
to Anne’s daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, unless she
should have sons by the king. Then follows a harsh
provision.

. . . If any person or persons, of what estate, dignity, or
condition soever they be, maliciously, by writing, print, deed,
or act, procure or do any thing or things to the prejudice,
slander, or derogation of the said lawful matrimony solem-
nized between your Majesty and the said Queen Anne, or
to the peril or slander of any of the heirs of your Highness,
being limited by this act to inherit the crown of this realm,
every such person and persons, and their aiders and abet-
tors, shall be adjudged high traitors, and every such offense
shall be adjudged high treason, and the offenders, and their
aiders and abettors, being lawfully convicted, shall suffer
pain of death, as in cases of high treason.

[All are to be sworn] truly, firmly, and constantly, with-
out fraud or guile, to observe, fulfill, maintain, and keep, to
their cunning, wit, and the utmost of their pow'ers, the whole
effects and contents of this present act.

' The Act of Supremacy, given below in full, was passed
by Parliament in November, 1534. It does little more
than sum up briefly what had already been done.

Albeit the king’s Majesty justly and rightfully is and
ought to be the supreme head of the Church of England,
and so is recognized by the clergy of this realm in their
convocations, yet nevertheless, for corroboration and con-
firmation thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ’s
religion within this realm of England, and to repress and
extirpate all errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses
heretofore used in the same, be it enacted, by authority of
this present Parliament, that the king, our sovereign lord,

269. Ex-
tract from
the first
Act of
Succession

(1534).

(Condensed.)

Treason to
question the
lawfulness
of Henry’s
marriage
with Anne.

270. The
Act of
Supremacy
(November,
1534)-

142

Readings in Em'opean History

271. Exe-
cution of
Fisher and
More. (From
Hall’s
Chronicle.)

John Fisher
beheaded for
treason
(1535)-

his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken,
accepted, and reputed the only supreme head in earth of
the Church of England, called Anglicmia Ecclesia ; and
shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial
crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof, as
all honors, dignities, preeminences, jurisdictions, privileges,
authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the said
dignity of the supreme head of the same Church belong-
ing and appertaining ; and that our said sovereign lord, his
heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power
and authority from time to time to visit, repress, redress,
record, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors,
heresies, abuses, offenses, contempts, and enormities, what-
soever they be, which by any manner of spiritual authority
or jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed, repressed,
ordered, redressed, corrected, restrained, or amended, most
to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue in
Christ’s religion, and for the conservation of the peace,
unity, and tranquillity of this realm ; any usage, foreign law,
foreign authority, prescription, or any other thing or things
to the contrary hereof notwithstanding.

Numbers of conscientious persons were now arrested
for declining to swear that the king’s first marriage was
void, and for refusing to adjure the supremacy of the pope.
The most distinguished victims were Bishop Fisher, who
had supported Catherine, and Sir Thomas More, who
refused to pronounce on the matter. Accordingly :

The twenty-second day of the same month John Fisher,
bishop of Rochester, was beheaded, and his head set upon
London Bridge. This bishop was of very many men
lamented ; for he was reported to be a man of great learn-
ing, and a man of very good life, but therein wonderfully
deceived, for he maintained the pope to be supreme head
of the Church, and very maliciously refused the king’s title
of supreme head. It was said that the pope, for that he
held so manfully with him and stood so ‘stiffly in his cause,

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 143

did elect him cardinal, and sent the cardinal’s hat as far as
Calais, but the head it should have stood on was as high
as London Bridge before the hat could come to Bishop
Fisher. . . .

Also the sixth day of July was Sir Thomas More beheaded
for the like treason before rehearsed, which, as you have
heard, was for the denying of the king’s Majesty’s suprem-
acy. This man was also counted learned, and, as you have
heard before, he was lord chancellor of England, and in that
time a great persecutor of such as detested the supremacy
of the bishop of Rome, which he himself so highly favored
that he stood to it until he was brought to the scaffold on
the Tower Hill, where on a block his head was stricken from
his shoulders and had no more harm.

I cannot tell whether I should call him a foolish wise man
or a wise foolish man, for undoubtedly he, beside his learn-
ing, had a great wit, but it was so mingled with taunting and
mocking, that it seemed to them that best knew him that he
thought nothing to be well spoken except he had ministered
some mock in the communication, insomuch as at his com-
ing to the Tower one of the officers demanded his upper
garment for his fee, meaning his gown, and he answered he
should have it and took him his cap, saying that it was the
uppermost garment that he had. Likewise, even going to
his death at the Tower gate, a poor woman called unto him
and besought him to declare that he had certain evidence of
hers in the time that he was in office (which after he was
apprehended she could not come by), and that he would
entreat she might have them again, or else she was undone.
He answered, “ Good woman, have patience a little while,
for the king is so good unto me that even within this half
hour he will discharge me of all business, and help thee
himself.” Also when he went up the stair on the scaffold
he desired one of the sheriff’s officers to give him his hand
to help him up, and said, “ When I come down again let me
shift for myself as well as I can.”

Also the hangman kneeled down to him asking him for-
giveness of his death (as the manner is), to whom he said.

Execution of
Sir Thomas
More.

144

. Readings in European History

272. An
account of
the destruc-
tion of the
monasteries.

“I forgive thee, but I promise thee that thou shalt never
have honesty of the striking of my head, my neck is so short.”
Also even when he should lay down his head on the block
he, having a great gray beard, struck out his beard, and said
to the hangman, “ I pray you let me lay my beard over the
block lest ye should cut it.” Thus with a mock he ended
his life.

VI. Church Reforms of Henry VIII

Henry VIII was no Protestant. He cruelly enforced
the acceptance by his subjects of the old beliefs of the
Roman Catholic Church, except that concerning the
supremacy of the pope. Nevertheless, as “supreme
head ” of the English Church, he introduced some
momentous changes : (i) He brought the clergy com-
pletely under his despotic control, and even issued ordi-
nances relating to the Church without submitting them
to the clergy at all. (2) He approved the reading of the
Bible in English, and (3) ordered that the services be
conducted in English instead of Latin. (4) Lastly, he
did away with all the monasteries, great and small, and
appropriated their lands. Thousands of men and women
were in consequence cast adrift, and toward a third of
all the lands in England are supposed to have been
involved.

The following is an extract from an account of the
destruction of the monasteries, written about 1591 by
one whose father and uncle witnessed the acts of the
visitors in some parts.

As soon as the visitors [i.e. the king’s commissioners]
were entered within the gates, they called the abbot and
other officers of the house, and caused them to deliver up to
them all their keys, and took an inventory of all their goods

Protestmit Revolt in Switzerland and England 145

both within doors and without ; for all such beasts, horses,
sheep, and such cattle as were abroad in pasture or grange
places, the visitors caused to be brought into their presence,
and when they had done so, turned the abbot with all his
convent and household forth of the doors.

Which thing was not a little grief to the convent, and all
the servants of the house departing one from another, and
especially such as with their conscience could not break
their profession ; for it would have made a heart of flint to
have melted and wept to have seen the breaking up of these
houses and their sorrowful departing, and the sudden spoil
that fell the same day of their departure from the house.
And every person had everything good cheap, except the
poor monks, friars, and nuns, that had no money to bestow
on anything. . . .

Such persons as afterward bought their corn and hay, or
such like, found all the doors either open, the locks and
shackles plucked away, or the door itself taken away, went
in and took what they found, — filched it away. Some took
the service books that lied in the church, and laid them upon
their waine coppes to piece the same. Some took windows
of the hayleith and hid them in their hay ; and likewise they
did of many other things, for some pulled forth the iron
hooks out of the walls that bought none, when the yeomen
and gentlemen of the country had bought the timber of the
church. For the church was the first thing that was put to
the spoil ; and then the abbott’s lodging, dorter, and frater,
with the cloister and all the buildings thereabout within the
abbey walls. ... It would have pitied any heart to see
what tearing up of lead there was and plucking up of boards
and throwing down of the spars ; when the lead was torn off
and cast down into the church and the tombs in the church
all broken (for in most abbeys were divers noble men and
women, — yea, and in some abbeys, kings, whose tombs were
regarded no more than the tombs of all other inferior persons;
for to what end should they stand when the church over them
was not spared for their cause!), and all things of Christ
either spoiled, carped away, or defaced to the uttermost.

273. Revilers

of the Lord’s

Supper to be

imprisoned

(1547)-

(Slightly

condensed.)

146 Readings in Enropean History

The persons that cast the lead into fodders plucked up all
the seats in the choir wherein the monks sat when they said
service, — which were like to the seats in minsters, — and
burned them and melted the lead therewith all, although
there was wood plenty within a flight shot of them. . . .

VII. Protestantism established in England under
Edward VI (1547-1553)

It was the task of the advisers of Edward VI to deter-
mine what should be the doctrines and rites in the new
English Protestant state church. When the beliefs and
religious services sanctioned by the government had been
duly established by issuing an official book of prayer and
the “Articles of Religion,” it became necessary to enforce
uniformity by punishing, on the one hand, “revilers,”
who went too far to suit the government, and, on the
other, Roman Catholics, who refused to go far enough.
At the opening of Edward’s reign a statute was directed
against the extremists who spoke against the Lord’s
Supper.

[Although the most comfortable sacrament of the body and
blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, commonly called the Sacra-
ment of the Altar, and in Scripture, the supper and table of
the Lord, was instituted of no less author than of our Saviour,]
yet the said sacrament has been of late marvelously abused
by such manner of men before rehearsed, who of wickedness,
or else of ignorance and want of learning, for certain abuses
heretofore committed by some, in misusing thereof, having
condemned in their hearts and speech the whole thing, and
contemptuously depraved, despised, or reviled the same most
holy and blessed sacrament, and not only disputed and rea-
soned unreverently and ungodly of that most high mystery,
but also, in their sermons, preachings, readings, lectures,
communications, arguments, talks, rhymes, songs, plays, or

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 147

jests, name or call it by such vile and unseemly words as
Christian ears do abhor to hear rehearsed.

For reformation whereof, be it enacted by the king’s High-
ness, with the assent of the Lords spiritual and temporal,
and of the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled,
that whatsoever person or persons, from and after the first
day of May next coming, shall deprave, despise, or contemn
the said most blessed sacrament, in contempt thereof, by any
contemptuous words, or by any words of depraving, despis-
ing, or reviling, contrary to the effects and declarations
abovesaid, that then he or they shall suffer imprisonment of
his or their bodies, and make fine and ransom at the king’s
will and pleasure.

From the several acts issued in the hope of securing
uniformity, the following is taken as one example of the
efforts of the government to abolish certain practices of
the Catholics.

Whereas, the king’s most excellent Majesty hath of late
set forth and established by authority of the Parliament an
uniform, quiet, and godly order for common prayer in a book
entitled. The Book of Common Prayer a7id Adfiimistration of
the Sacf'aments, to be used and observed in the said Church
of England, agreeably to the order of the primitive Church,
much more comfortable unto his loving subjects than other
diversity of service, as heretofore of long time hath been
used. ... Be it enacted therefore by the king, our sover-
eign lord, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the Com-
mons, in the present Parliament assembled, that all books
called antiphonaries, missals, grails, processionals, manuals,
legends, pies, portuasses, primers in Latin and English,
etc., hitherto used for service of the Church, written or
printed in the English or Latin tongue, other than such as
are or shall be set forth by the king’s Majesty, shall be by
authority of this present act clearly and utterly abolished,
extinguished, and forbidden forever to be used or kept in
the realm.

Penalty
for such
reviling.

274. An act
for the
abolishing
and putting
away of
diverse
books and
images

(1547)-

(Condensed.)

148

Readings in Eicropean History

And be it further enacted, that if any person or persons,
of what estate, degree, or condition soever, that now have
or hereafter shall have in his, her, or their custody, any
books or writings of the sorts aforesaid, or any images of
stone, timber, alabaster, or earth, graven, carved, or painted,
which heretofore have been taken out of any church or
chapel, or yet stand in any church or chapel, and do not
before the last day of June next ensuing deface and destroy,
or cause to be defaced and destroyed, the same images, and
deliver all and every the same books to the mayor, bailiff,
constable, or church wardens of the town where such books
then shall be, to be by them delivered over openly within
three months to the archbishop, bishop, or chancellor, to the
intent the said archbishop, bishop, or chancellor cause them
immediately either to be openly burned or otherwise defaced
and destroyed, shall for every such book or books willingly
retained in his, her, or their hands or custody within the
realm, or elsewhere within any of the king’s dominions, after
the last day of June (and be therefore lawfully convict) for-
feit and lose to the king, our sovereign lord, for the first
offense twenty shillings, and for the second offense shall
forfeit and lose (being therefore lawfully convict) four
pounds, and for the third offense shall suffer imprisonment
at the king’s will.^

1 Extracts from the diary of the bishop of Worcester give a vivid
idea of the changes during the first years of Edward VI :

1547. Candlemas Day : No candles hallowed or borne Ash Wednes-
day. No ashes.

1 548. March 2^, Palm Sunday : No palms or cross borne in procession.
Easter Eve : No fire, but the paschal taper and the font. Easter Day :
The pyx, with the sacrament, taken out of the sepulcher, they singing
“ Christ is Risen ” without procession. Good Friday : No creeping to
the cross. October 20 : The cup and the body of Christ was taken away
from the altars.

1549. Good Friday : No sepulcher, or service of sepulcher. Easter
Eve: No paschal taper, or fire, or incense, or font. On April 2^ : Mass,
matins, evensong, and all other service in English.

All mass' books, graduals, pies, portasses, and legends brought to the
bishop and burned. (From Bishop Blandford’s diary, quoted in Traill,
Social Engla7id, Vol. Ill, \%o sql)

Protestant Revolt hi Switzerland and England 149

VIII. The Catholic Reaction under Queen Mary

(1553-1558)

The Venetian ambassador, Giovanni Michele, made a
report to his government in 1557 on the state of Eng-
land. He thus describes Queen Mary and her husband,

Philip II :

Queen Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and of his 275. A
queen Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand the Catholic, king
of Aragon, is a princess of great worth. In her youth she sador’s
was rendered unhappy by the event of her mother’s divorce ; account of
by the ignominy and threats to which she was exposed after Mary

the change of religion in England, she being unwilling to
unbend to the new one ; and by the dangers to which she
was exposed by the duke of Northumberland, and the riots
among the people when she ascended the throne.

She is of short stature, well made, thin and delicate, and
moderately pretty ; her eyes are so lively that she inspires
reverence and respect, and even fear, wherever she turns
them ; nevertheless she is very shortsighted. Her voice is
deep, almost like that of a man. She understands five lan-
guages,— English, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian, in
which last, however, she does not venture to converse. She
is also much skilled in ladies’ work, such as producing all
sorts of qmbroidery with the needle. She has a knowledge
of music, chiefly on the lute, on which she plays exceedingly
well. As to the qualities of her mind, it may be said of her
that she is rash, disdainful, and parsimonious rather than
liberal. She is endowed with great humility and patience,
but withal high-spirited, courageous, and resolute, having dur-
ing the whole course of her adversity not been guilty of the
least approach to meanness of deportment ; she is, moreover,
devout and stanch in the defense of her religion.

Some personal infirmities under which she labors are the
causes to her of both public and private affliction; to remedy
these recourse is had to frequent bloodletting, and this is
the real cause of her paleness and the general weakness of

Readmgs m Eitropean History

Description
of Philip II.

Indifference
of the English
to religion.

150

her frame. These have also given rise to the unfounded
rumor that the queen is in a state of pregnancy. The cabal
she has been exposed to, the evil disposition of the people
toward her, the present poverty and the debt of the crown,
and her passion for King Philip, from whom she is doomed
to live separate, are so many other causes of the grief with
which she is overwhelmed. She is, moreover, a prey to
the hatred she bears my Lady Elizabeth, and which has its
source in the recollection of the wrongs she experienced on
account of her mother, and in the fact that all eyes and
hearts are turned towards my Lady Elizabeth as successor
to the throne. . . .

King Philip is of short stature, but his person appears to
advantage both when armed and in common attire. Though
of great affability and politeness, his character is marked
with gravity. His understanding is good and his judgment
correct. Besides Spanish, he knows Latin, French, and
Italian. He is also liberal and religious, but without pos-
sessing either the dignity or the ambition of his father. . . .
As to his authority in England, your Serene Highness may
be assured that in all affairs of importance, whether public
or private, he is made to act precisely the same part as if he
were the natural king of England, and this on account of the
great respect and love with which he is treated by the queen
and Cardinal Pole. Sensible, however, that he is new in
this kingdom, he modestly; and wisely too, leaves everything
to the management of the queen and the cardinal [Pole].
He receives petitions, but more in the character of mediator
than as a patron, letting justice take its course in criminal
cases, but frequently stepping forward to procure pardon or
mitigation of punishment after conviction. . . .

Religion, although thriving in this country, is, I apprehend,
in some degree the offspring of dissimulation. The queen is
far from being lukewarm ; she has already founded ten mon-
asteries, and is about to found more. Generally speaking,
your Serene Highness may rest assured that with the Eng-
lish the example and authority of the sovereign is every-
thing, and religion is only so far valued as it inculcates the

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 1 5 1

duty due from the subject to the prince. They live as he
lives, they believe as he believes, and they obey his com-
mands, not from any inward moral impulse, but because they
fear to incur his displeasure ; and they would be full as
zealous followers of the Mohammedan or Jewish religions
did the king profess either of them, or command his sub-
jects to do so. In short, they will accommodate themselves
to any religious persuasion, but most readily to one that
promises to minister to licentiousness and profit.

Mary proclaimed, immediately after her accession, that
she proposed to adhere to the religion which she had
ever professed from her infancy, “which her Majesty is
minded to observe and maintain for herself by God’s
grace during her time, so doth her Highness much desire
and would be glad the same were of all her subjects
quietly and charitably embraced.” She speedily repealed
the church legislation of Edward’s reigrl ; then, by a
second act of repeal (1554), that of Henry VIII, thus
restoring the conditions which had existed before 1529.
She wished to give back the church property, but this
was deemed impossible. She revived the old heresy acts
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The following
order for the execution of Bishop Hooper may serve as
an example of her policy toward heretics.

Right trusty and well beloved, etc. :

Whereas John Hooper, who of late was called bishop of
Rochester and Gloucester, by due order of the laws ecclesi-
astic, condemned and judged for a most obstinate, false,
detestable heretic, and committed to our secular power, to
be burned according to the wholesome and good laws of our
realm in that case provided ; forasmuch as in those cities,
and the diocese thereof, he has in times past preached and
taught most pestilent heresies and doctrine to our subjects
there, we have therefore given order that the said Hooper,

276. Mary’s
directions
for execut-
ing a
heretical
bishop.

A. Refer-
ences.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

152 Readings in Eui'opean History

who yet persisteth obstinate, and hath refused mercy when
it was graciously offered, shall be put to execution in the
said city of Gloucester, for the example and terror of such as
he has there seduced and mistaught, and because he hath
done most harm there. . . . And forasmuch also as the
said Hooper is, as heretics be, a vainglorious person, and
delighteth in his tongue, and, having liberty, may use his
said tongue to persuade such as he hath seduced, to persist
in the miserable opinion that he hath sown among them, our
pleasure is therefore, and we require you to take order, that
the said Hooper be neither, at the time of his execution, nor
in going to the place thereof, suffered to speak at large, but
thither to be led quietly and in silence, for eschewing of
further infection and such inconvenience as may otherwise
ensue in this part. Wherefore fail not, as ye tender our
pleasure.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Zwingli and the Swiss Reform : Hausser, Period of the Reforma-
tion, pp. 125-142; Catnbridge Modern History, Vol. II, Chapter X,
pp. 305-341 ; Walker, The Reformation, Chapter IV, pp. 147-180.

Calvin and the Genevan Reformation : Hausser, pp. 241-255 ;
Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, Chapter XI, pp. 342-376 ; Walker,
Chapter VI, pp. 225-276.

The English Humanists : Green, Short History of England,
pp. 303-320; Translations and Reprhits, Vol. I, No. i.

Henry VIII: Cheyney, Short History of England, pp. 289-310;
Andrews, History of England, pp. 245-268; Green, pp. 320-356;
Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, Chapter XIII, pp. 416-473 (by
James Gairdner ; excellent); Terry, A History of Esigland, pp. 512-559.

Edward VI: Cheyney, pp. 3 10-31 9; Cambridge Modern History,
Vol. II, Chapter XIV, pp. 474-512 (by Pollard) ; Terry, pp. 560-570.

Mary and the Catholic Reaction: Green, pp. 361-369; Terry,
pp. 571-586; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, Chapter XV,
pp. 512-459; Cheyney, pp. 319-328.

Jackson, S. M., Huldreich Zwingli, 1901. The best biography of
Zwingli in English ; scholarly and well illustrated.

ScHAFF, Philip, History of the Reformation, Vol. II (Vol. VII of his
History of the Christian Church'), is devoted to Zwingli and Calvin.

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 153

Spalding, The History of the Protestant Reformation. Vol. I, Chap-
ter V (Zwingli) ; Vol. II, Chapter I (Henry VIII and Edward VI);
Chapter II (Mary and Philip). A suggestive review of the subject by a
critic hostile to the Protestant movement.

Henry, P., Life and Times of Calvin., z vols., 1849. This is a trans-
lation of a German work, and in spite of the fact that it is rather out of
date, it is the best life of Calvin to be had in English. A new biography
is announced in The Heroes of the Reformation Series, by Professor
Williston Walker.

Calvin, Works : The Institutes of the Christian Religion has several
times been published in English ; for example, a translation by Beveridge,
3 vols., 1845-1846. Beveridge has also translated some important
Tracts of Calvin relating to the Reformation, 3 vols., 1844-1851.

Beza, Theodore, Life of Calvin. This is to be found in Vol. I of
Beveridge’s translation of Calvin’s Tracts, mentioned just above. Beza
was a co-worker of Calvin’s and knew him well.

Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers. An admirable account of the
beginnings of humanism in England.

Gasquet, The Eve of the Reformatio7i, 1900. Excellent ; by a learned
Benedictine.

Moberly, The Early Tudors. A general review of the period in
the Epoch Series.

Pollard, Henry VIII, 1902, and Thomas Cramner, 1903. Two
useful biographies, by a careful writer.

Stone, The Reign of Mary the First, 1901. An apology, correcting
many common misapprehensions.

Gee and Hardy, Docu7nents Illustrative of E7tglish Church History.
An admirable collection, particularly full on this period. It may be
supplemented by the interesting extracts given in Kendall, Source
Book of English History ; Colby, Selectio7is fro77i the Soicrces of E7iglish
History ; and Lee, Source Book of E7iglish History.

Cavendish, Cardmal Wolsey, in Morley’s “Universal Library.”
Written by one of Wolsey ’s clerks.

Wakeman, l7itroductio7i to the History of the Chtirch of E7tgla7id,
1898, Chapters XI-XIV.

Gairdner, a History of the E7iglish Church fro7it He7iry VIII to
Mary, 1 904.

Zwingli, Selected Works of, edited by S. M. Jackson, 1901. Con- C. Materials
tains an account of the first disputation at Zurich, Zwingli’s refutation for advanced
of the Baptist teachings, etc. study.

154

Readings in European History

England.

Stahelin, R., Huldreich Zwingli nach den Qiiellen da7'gestellt, 2 vols.,
Basel, 1895-1897.1

Strickler, Acte7isaminlung zur schweizerischen Reformationsge-
schichte in dc7i Jahren ig2i-g2, 5 vols., Zurich, 1877-1884.

Articles on Zwingli and Calvin in the Reale7icyklopddie fiir protestan-
tische Theologie and in the Kirche7ilexiko7i (see Readhigs, Vol. I, p. 84).

Stahelin, Ernst, Calvm's Leben ti7id ausgewdhlte Werke, 2 vols.,
1863.

Kampschulte, F. Rt .,Joha7t7i Calvhi, sehie Kirche U7id sehi Staat m
Ge7ip Vol. I, 1869; Vol. II, 1899.

Bolzec, Histoire de la vie, 7noeurs, actes, co7ista7ice et 77iort de Jea7i
Calvm, edited by Chaste!, 1875; Archives curieuses de V histoire

de Fra7ice, First Series, Vol. V. First published in 1577 by an enemy
of Calvin.

Calvini, Opera quae supersu7it 077inia, 59 vols., 1869-1897. Espe-
cially important for the historical student are the numerous letters, the
ordonnances for the government of Geneva (in Vol. X, Part I), and the
“Annales Calvini,” which consist of extracts from the sources, so
arranged as to give a very complete and authoritative account of
Calvin’s career (Vol. XXI).

Faguet, Emile, Ettides litteraires S7ir la XVIih7ie siecle, 1894.

Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la la7tgue et de la litterature fra7t-
qaise, Vol. III.

Herminjard, Correspo7ida7ice des Refor77iateurs da7is les pays de la7igue
fra77^aise, 9 vols., 1866-1897. Admirably edited.^

Beard, The Refor7natio7i of the Sixtee7ith Ce7itury a7id its Relatio7i to
Moder7i Thought a7id K7iowledge, 1893.

Brewer, The Reig7i of Henry VIII fro77i his Accessiosi to the Death
of Wolsey, 2 vols. A scholarly account by a distinguished archivist.

Froude, History of E7igla7id fro77i the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of
the Spasiish Ar7nada, 12 vols. Vols. I-V relate to the period 1532-1558.
A brilliant work by a learned but biased writer, who misuses his sources
in his anxiety to defend Henry VIII.

Dixon, History of the Church of E7igla7id fro77i the Abolitio7i of the
Ro77ia7i Jurisdictio7i., 6 vols., to 1570. Recent exhaustive Protestant
treatment.

1 See remarkable bibliography of the Helvetic Reformation in CaTnbridge
Modern History, Vol. II, pp. 769 sqq.

2 See valuable bibliography of Calvin and his work in the CaTnbridge Modern
History, Vol. II, p. 779.

Protestant Revolt in Szvitzerland and Ezigland 155

Lingard (d. 1851), History of England to 1688, 10 vols. The stand-
ard Catholic history ; rather old now, but still useful on account of
Lingard’s erudition and point of view.

Gasquet, Henry VIII and the Ettglish Monasteries. The best
account of the matter.

Friedmann, .(4 Boleyn,2 vols., and Merriman, Life and Letters
of Tho7nas Cromwell, 2 vols., 1902. Good detailed biographies.

Cheyney, Social Changes ht Eiigland hi the Sixteenth Century.

Traill, Social England, Vol. III. Contains short monographs by
different hands, dealing topically with the various phases of the period.

The materials for the Tudor period are exceedingly voluminous, and
only the chief groups can be mentioned.

The Statutes of the Realm in various editions. The best is the folio
edition published under the direction of the Record Commission. The
four7ials of the House of Lords begin with Henry VIII and the four7ials
of the Hotise of Co7n7no7is with Edward VI.

Proceednigs a7id Ordma7ices of the Privy Cotmcil, edited by Nicolas
(Vol. VII for Henry VHI). This important series is continued by
Dasent, Acts of the Privy Cotmcil, 19 vols., to 1590.

The State Papers, 1 1 vols. A collection of important letters, invalu-
able for Henry VHI.

Cale7^dar of Letters a7td Papers, Poreigti attd Do7tiestic, of the Reigtt of
Hetiry VIII, 19 vols. Thousands of domestic, foreign, and colonial
papers have been digested in the various calendars published under the
Record Commission. The advanced student should also be familiar
with the Reports of the Historical Ma7iuscripts Co77imissio7i and the
Atinual Reports of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records.

The chronicles of Hall, Holinshed, Wriothesly, and Stow are
valuable for contemporary opinion. Stray tractates are printed in the
Camden Society’s publications and in Arber, Ati E7tglish Garner. The
stream of pamphlet literature begins to flow in the period of Henry VIII.

The sources
for England.

Parlia-

mentary

materials.

Official
documents
and letters.

Calendars of
state papers.

Chronicles
and tracts.

CHAPTER XXVIII

277. Ex-
tracts from
the Acts, of
the Council
of Trent.

On confes-
sion. (Some-
what con-
densed.)

THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION : PHILIP II

I. The Decrees of the Council of Trent

The decrees of the Council of Trent constitute the
most important monument of the Catholic Reformation.
These fall into three groups : (i) those which define and
explain the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and
defend them against the objections raised by the Protes-
tants; (2) those which succinctly and explicitly declare
accursed the various heretical beliefs ; and (3) lastly, a
great number of reform decrees abolishing the various
abuses and enforcing a more rigid discipline among the
clergy and monks. The following extracts will serve at
once to illustrate the spirit and method of the council
and to make clear some of those Roman Catholic tenets
which have been most bitterly attacked and most often
misrepresented by Protestants.

The universal Church has always understood that the
complete confession of sins was instituted by the Lord, and
is of divine right necessary for all who have fallen into sin
after baptism ; because our Lord Jesus Christ, when about
to ascend from earth to heaven, left priests, his own vicars,
as leaders and judges, before whom all the mortal offenses
into which the faithful of Christ may have fallen should be
carried, in order that, in accordance with the power of the
keys, they may pronounce the sentence of forgiveness or of
retention of sins. For it is manifest that priests could not
have exercised this judgment without knowledge of the case ;

156

The Catholic Reformation

157

neither could they have observed equity in enjoining punish-
ments, if the said faithful declared their sins in general only
instead of specifically and one by one. Whence it is gathered
that all the mortal sins of which penitents, after a diligent
examination of themselves, are conscious must needs be
enumerated in confession.

Venial sins, whereby we are not excluded from the grace
of God, and into which we fall more frequently, although
they may be included rightly and profitably, and without
any presumption, in confession, as the custom of pious per-
sons shows, yet they may be omitted without guilt and be
expiated by many other remedies. But since all mortal sins,
even those of thought, render men “ children of wrath ” and
enemies of God, it is necessary to seek pardon from God for
every mortal sin by a full and modest confession. . . .

It is impious to assert that confession, thus enjoined, is
impossible, or to call it “a slaughter-house of consciences”;
for it is certain that in the Church nothing more is required
of penitents, except that, after each has examined himself
diligently, and searched all the folds and recesses of his
conscience, he confess those sins which he shall remember,
by which he has mortally offended his Lord and God ; whilst
the other sins, which do not occur to him after diligent
thought, are understood to be included as a whole in that
same confession ; for which sins we confidently say with the
prophet, “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”

This holy Council enjoins on all bishops and others who
are charged with teaching, that they instruct the faithful
diligently concerning the intercession and invocation of
saints, the honor paid to relics, and the legitimate use of
images. Let them teach that the saints, who reign together
with Christ, offei* up their own prayers to God for men ; that
it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to
have recourse to their prayers and aid in obtaining benefits
from God, through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is
our sole Redeemer and Saviour ; and that those persons
think impiously who deny that the saints, who enjoy eternal

Only mortal
sins need be
confessed.

Answer to
Protestant
objections.

On the invo-
cation and
veneration of
saints and
their images.

Of relics.

Veneration
of images.

1 5 8 Readings in European History

happiness in heaven, are to be invoked ; or who assert that
the saints do not pray for men, or that the invocation of
them to pray for each of us individually is idolatry ; or who
declare that it is repugnant to the word of God, and opposed
to the honor of the “one mediator of God and men, Christ
Jesus,” or that it is foolish to supplicate, orally or mentally,
those who reign in heaven.

They shall likewise teach that the holy bodies of martyrs,
and of others now living with Christ, — which bodies were
the living members of Christ, and “ the temple of the Holy
Ghost,” and which are by him to be raised unto eternal life,
and to be glorified, — are to be venerated by the faithful,
through which relics many benefits are bestowed by God on
men. Consequently they who affirm that veneration and
honor are not due to the relics of saints, or that these and
other sacred memorials are uselessly honored by the faithful,
and that the places dedicated to the memories of the saints
are visited in vain with the view of obtaining their aid, are
wholly to be condemned, as the Church has already long since
condemned, and now also condemns, them.

Moreover they shall teach that the images of Christ, of
the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints are to be
placed and retained particularly in churches, and that due
honor and veneration are to be given them ; not that any
divinity or virtue is believed to be in them on account of
which they are to be worshiped ; or that anything is to be
asked of them ; or that trust is to be reposed in images, as
was of old done by the heathen who placed their hope in
idols; but because the honor which is shown them is referred
to the prototypes which those images represent; in such
wise that by means of the images which we kiss, and before
which we uncover the head and prostrate ourselves, we
adore Christ, and we venerate the saints, whose similitude
they bear. . . .

The following decrees are examples of the brief para-
graphs in which the council rejects and anathematizes
the various doctrines of the Protestants.

The Catholic Reformation

159

If any one saith that the New Testament does not provide
for a distinct, visible priesthood ; or that this priesthood has
not any power of consecrating and offering up the true body
and blood of the Lord, and of forgiving and retaining sins,
but is only an office and bare ministry of preaching the gos-
pel ; or that those who do not preach are not priests at all ;
let him be anathema. . . .

If any one saith that by sacred ordination the Holy Ghost
is not given, and that vainly therefore do the bishops say,
“Receive ye the Holy Ghost”; or that a character is not
imprinted by that ordination ; or that he who has once
been a priest can again become a layman ; let him be anath-
ema. . . .

If any one saith that in the Catholic Church there is not
a hierarchy instituted by divine ordination, consisting of
bishops, priests, and ministers; let him be anathema.^

If any one saith that the sacraments of the new law were
not all instituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord ; or that they
are more or less than seven, to wit, baptism, confirmation,
the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matri-
mony ; or even that any one of these seven is not truly and
properly a sacrament ; let him be anathema.

Of the reform decrees, the following relating to the
conduct and teaching of the clergy may be cited.

In order that the faithful may approach, and receive the
sacraments with greater reverence and devotion of mind, this
holy Council enjoins on all bishops that, not only when they
are themselves about to administer them to the people they
shall first explain, in a manner suited to the capacity of those
who receive them, the efficacy and use of those sacraments,
but they shall endeavor that the same be done piously and
prudently by every parish priest ; and this even in the ver-
nacular tongue, if need be, and if it can be conveniently done.

Such instruction shall be given in accordance with the
form which will be prescribed for each of the sacraments by

1 Compare Luther’s andCalvin’s doctrines above, pp.76 81 sq., and 133.

277a. Those
who reject
the hier-
archy and
the sacra-
ments
declared
accursed.

277b. Bish-
ops and
priests
should care-
fully ex-
plain the
sacraments
to the
people.

The cate-
chism.

277c. Prel-
ates should
live frugally
as an ex-
ample to
others.

Nepotism

forbidden.

i6o Readings in European History

this holy Council in a catechism, which the bishops shall
take care to have faithfully translated into the vulgar tongue,
and to have expounded to the people by all parish priests.
They shall also explain in the said vulgar tongue, during
the solemnization of mass, or the celebration of the divine
offices, on all festivals or solemnities, the sacred oracles and
the maxims of salvation ; and, setting aside all unprofitable
questions, they shall endeavor to impress them on the hearts
of all, and to instruct their hearers in the law of the Lord.

It is to be desired that those who undertake the office of
bishop should understand what their portion is, and com-
prehend that they are called, not to their own convenience,
not to riches or luxury, but to labors and cares, for the glory
of God. For it is not to be doubted that the rest of the
faithful also will be more easily excited to religion and inno-
cence if they shall see those who are set over them not fixing
their thoughts on the things of this world, but on the salva-
tion of souls and on their heavenly country. Wherefore this
holy Council, being minded that these things are of the
greatest importance towards restoring ecclesiastical disci-
pline, admonishes all bishops that, often meditating thereon,
they show themselves conformable to their office by their
actual deeds and the actions of their lives ; which is a kind
of perpetual sermon ; but, above all, that they so order their
whole conversation that others may thence be able to derive
examples of frugality, modesty, continency, and of that holy
humility which so much commends us to God.

Wherefore, after the example of our fathers in the Coun-
cil of Carthage, this Council not only orders that bishops be
content with modest furniture, and a frugal table and diet,
but that they also give heed that in the rest of their manner
of living, and in their whole house, there be nothing seen
which is alien to this holy institution, and which does not
manifest simplicity, zeal toward God, and a contempt of
vanities.

It strictly forbids them, moreover, to strive to enrich their
own kindred or domestics out of the revenues of the Church;

The Catholic Reformation i6l

seeing that even the canons of the apostles forbid them to
give to their kindred the property of the Church, which
belongs to God ; but if their kindred be poor, let them dis-
tribute to them thereof as poor, but not misapply or waste
the Church’s goods for their sakes : yea, this holy Council,
with the utmost earnestness, admonishes them completely
to lay aside all this human and carnal affection towards
brothers, nephews, and kindred, which is the seed plot of
many evils in the Church, And what has been said of bish-
ops, the same is to be observed by all who hold ecclesias-
tical benefices, whether secular or regular, each according
to the nature of his rank. . . .

II. The Society of Jesus

Pauh the bishop^ servant of the servants of God, for a perpet-
ual memorial of this matter :

... Of late we have learned that our beloved sons Igna-
tius de Loyola, Peter Faber, James Laynez, Claude le Jay,
Pasquier Brouet, Francis Xavier, Alfonzo Salmeron, Simon
Rodriguez, John Codure, and Nicholas de Boabdilla, priests,
masters of arts, and graduates of the University of Paris,
and students of some years’ standing in theology, inspired,
as they piously believe, by the Holy Spirit, assembled to-
gether and, forming an association, forsook the allurements
of the age to dedicate their lives to the perpetual service
of our Lord Jesus Christ and of ourselves and our succes-
sors, the Roman pontiffs.

Now for many years they have labored nobly in the vine-
yard of the Lord, publicly preaching the word of God under
a tentative license, privately exhorting the faithful to a good
and blessed life and stimulating them to holy thoughts,
assisting in hospitals, instructing the young and ignorant in
the truths essential for the development of a Christian, and
performing all these offices of charity and acts for the con-
solation of souls with great approbation in whatever lands
they have visited.

278. The
first ap-
proval of
the Society
of Jesus by
Paul III.
(Condensed.)

i62

Readings in European History

Then, gathering in this beautiful city and remaining within
its confines in order to complete and preserve the union of
their society in Christ, they have drawn up a rule of life in
accordance with the principles which they have learned by
experience will promote their desired ends, and in conform-
ity with evangelical precepts and the canonical sanctions of
the fathers. The tenor of the aforesaid rule is as follows:

The rule of
the Jesuits.

Purposes of
the society.

Special
obedience
to the pope.

He who desires to fight for God under the banner of the
cross in our society, — which we wish to distinguish by the
name of Jesus, — and to serve God alone and the Roman
pontiff, his vicar on earth, after a solemn vow of perpetual
chastity, shall set this thought before his mind, that he is a
part of a society founded for the especial purpose of provid-
ing for the advancement of souls in Christian life and doc-
trine and for the propagation of the faith through public
preaching and the ministry of the word of God, spiritual
exercises and deeds of charity, and in particular through
the training of the young and ignorant in Christianity and
through the spiritual consolation of the faithful of Christ in
hearing confessions ; and he shall take care to keep first
God and next the purpose of this organization always before
his eyes. . . ,

All the members shall realize, and shall recall daily, as
long as they live, that this society as a whole and in every
part is fighting for God under faithful obedience to one
most holy lord, the pope, and to the other Roman pontiffs
who succeed him. And although we are taught in the gos-
pel and through the orthodox faith to recognize and stead-
fastly profess that all the faithful of Christ are subject to
the Roman pontiff as their head and as the vicar of Jesus
Christ, yet we have adjudged that, for the special promotion
of greater humility in our society and the perfect mortifica-
tion of every individual and the sacrifice of our own wills,
we should each be bound by a peculiar vow, in addition to
the general obligation, that whatever the present Roman
pontiff, or any future one, may from time to time decree
regarding the welfare of souls and the propagation of the

The Catholic Reformation

163

faith, we are pledged to obey without evasion or excuse,
instantly, so far as in us lies, whether he send us to the
Turks or any other infidels, even to those who inhabit the
regions men call the Indies ; whether to heretics or schis-
matics, or, on the other hand, to certain of the faithful.

Wherefore those who come to us shall reflect long and
deeply, before they take this burden upon their shoulders, as
to whether they have among their goods enough spiritual
treasure to enable them, according to the Lord’s precept, to
carry out their enterprise, — that is, whether the Holy Spirit
who impels them promises them so much grace that they
may hope to support the weight of this profession with his
aid; then, after they have, under God’s inspiration, been
enrolled in this army of Jesus Christ, day and night must
they have their loins girded and themselves in readiness for
the payment of their mighty obligation. Nor shall there be
amongst us any ambition or rivalry whatsoever for missions
and provinces. . . . Subordinates shall, indeed, both for the Implicit
sake of the wide activities of the order and also for the
assiduous practice, never sufficiently to be commended, of the society,
humility, be bound always to obey the commander in every
matter pertaining to the organization of the society, and
shall recognize Christ as present in him, and shall do him
reverence as far as is seemly. . . .

Whereas, moreover, we have found that the happier, Vow of
purer, and more edifying life is that removed as far as pos- perpetual
sible from all contagion of avarice and modeled as nearly as
may be upon evangelical poverty, and whereas we know that
our Lord Jesus Christ will furnish the necessities of food
and clothing to his servants who seek only the kingdom of
God, therefore each and every member shall vow perpetual
poverty, declaring that neither individually, nor even in
common for the support or use of the society, will he ac-
quire any civil right over any permanent property, rents,
or incomes whatever, but that he will be content with the
use only of such articles as shall be given him to meet his
necessities. They may, however, maintain in universities a
college or colleges with means or possessions to be applied

164 Readings in European History

to the needs and exigencies of the students ; all control or
supervision of any sort over the said colleges and students
being vested in the commander and the society. . . .

The foregoing is what, by the permission of our said Lord
Paul and of the apostolic see, we have been allowed to set
forth as a general ideal for our profession. We have taken
this step at this time in order that by this brief document we
might inform the persons who are inquiring now about our
way of life, and also posterity, — if, by God’s will, there
shall be those to follow us in the path upon which (attended
though it be by many grave difficulties) we have entered.
We have further judged it expedient to prescribe that no one
shall be received into this society until he has been long and
thoroughly tried; but when he has proved himself wise in
Christ as well as in doctrine, and exalted in the purity of the
Christian life, then at length he shall be admitted into the
army of Jesus Christ. May he deign to prosper our feeble
undertaking to the glory of God the Father, to whom alone
be ever praise and honor throughout the ages. Amen.

The pope’s
sanction of
the rule of
the Jesuits.

Number of
members
restricted
to sixty.

Whereas nothing may be discovered in the foregoing
which is not pious or devout, in order that these associates
who have made their humble application to us may be the
better forwarded in their religious plan of life for feeling
themselves included in the grace of the apostolic see and
finding their projects meeting our approval, we do, through
apostolic authority, approve, confirm, bless, and fortify with
a bulwark of everlasting power the whole and every part of
the aforesaid organization, and we take these associates
under the protection of ourselves and this holy apostolic see ;
. . . We will also that persons who desire to profess the
rules of life of this society be admitted into it and counted
with the said society up to the number of sixty and no more.
To no man whatsoever be it permitted to infringe or violate
this statement of our approbation, benediction, and justifica-
tion. If any one shall presume to attempt it, let him be
assured that he incurs the wrath of Almighty God and of the
blessed Peter and Paul, his apostles.

The Catholic Reformation 165

Given at St. Mark’s in Rome, in the year of our Lord’s
incarnation 1540, September 27, in the sixth year of our
pontificate.

III. The Abdication of Charles V (1555)

Although [my councilor] Philibert has just fully explained
to you, my friends, the causes which have-determined me to
surrender the possession and administration of these Belgian
provinces and leave them to my son, Don Philip, yet I wish
to say certain things with my own mouth. You will remember
that upon the 5th of January of this year there had elapsed
forty years since my grandfather, the emperor Maximilian,
in the same place and at the same hour, declared my majority
at the age of fifteen, withdrew me from the guardianship
under which I had remained up to that time, and made me
master of myself.

The following year, which was my sixteenth. King Fer-
dinand (my mother’s father and my grandfather) died in
the kingdom over which I was then forced to begin to reign,
owing to the fact that my beloved mother, who has but just
died, was left, by reason of the death of my father, with
disordered judgment, and never sufficiently recovered her
health to be capable of ruling over the possessions which she
inherited from her father and mother.

At that time I went to Spain by way of the sea. Soon
came the death of my grandfather Maximilian, in my nine-
teenth year, and although I was still young I sought and
obtained the imperial dignity in his stead. I had no inordi-
nate ambition to rule a multitude of kingdoms, but merely
desired to secure the welfare and prosperity of Germany,
my dear fatherland, and of my other kingdoms, especially of
my Belgian provinces ; and to encourage and extend as far
as in me lay Christian peace and harmony throughout the
whole world.

But although such zeal was mine, I was unable to show so
much of it as I might have wished, on account of the troubles
raised by the heresies of Luther and the other innovators

279. Charles
V’s address
at Brussels

(1555)-

Readings in Europea?t History

The emperor’s
bad health.

1 66

of Germany, and on account of serious war into which the
hostility and envy of neighboring princes had driven me,
but from which I have safely emerged, thanks to the favor
of God. . . .

This is the fourth time that I am setting out for Spain.
I wish to say to you that nothing I have ever experienced
has given me so much pain or rested so heavily upon my
soul as that which I experience in parting from you to-day,
without leaving behind me that peace and quiet which I
so much desired. My sister Mary, who in my absence has
governed you so wisely and defended you so well, has ex-
plained to you in the last assembly the reasons for my
determination.

I am no longer able to attend to my affairs without great
bodily fatigue and consequent detriment to the interests of
the state. The cares which so great a responsibility involves,
the extreme dejection which it causes, my health already
ruined, — all these leave me no longer the vigor sufficient
for governing the states which God has confided to me.
The little strength that remains to me is rapidly disappear-
ing. I should long ago have laid down the burden if my
son’s immaturity and my mother’s incapacity had not forced
both my spirit and my body to sustain its weight until this
hour.

The last time that I went to Germany I had determined
to do what you see me do to-day ; but I could not bring
myself to do it when I saw the wretched condition of the
Christian state, a prey to such a multitude of disturbances,
of innovations, of singular opinions as to faith, of worse
than civil wars, and fallen finally into so many lamentable
disorders. I was turned from my purpose because my own
ills were not yet so great, and I hoped to make an end of all
these things and restore peace. In order that I might not
be wanting in my duty, I risked my strength, my goods, my
repose, and my life for the safety of Christianity and the
defense of my subjects.

From this struggle I emerged with a portion of the things
I desired. But the king of France and certain Germans,

The Catholic Reformation

failing to preserve the peace and amity they had sworn,
marched against me. The Germans were upon the point of
seizing my person. The king of France took the city of
Metz, and I, in the dead of winter, exposed to intense cold,
in the midst of snow and blood, advanced with a powerful
army raised at my own expense to retake the city and restore
the empire. The Germans saw that I had not yet laid aside
the imperial crown, and that I had no disposition to allow
its majesty to be diminished. . . .

I have carried out what God has permitted, — for the
outcome of our efforts depends upon the will of God. We
human beings act according to our powers, our strength, our
spirit, and God awards the victory or permits defeat. I have
ever done what I could, and God has aided me. I — and
you, too — should return to him boundless thanks for his
aid, for having succored me in my greatest trials and in all
my dangers.

To-day I feel so exhausted that I could not help you, as
you see yourselves. In my present state of dejection and
weakness, I should have to render a serious account to God
and man if I did not lay aside authority, as I have resolved
to do, since my son. King Philip, is of an age sufficiently
advanced to be able to govern you ; and he will be, I hope,
a good prince to all my beloved subjects.

I am determined then to retire to Spain and to yield to
my son Philip the possession of all my Belgian provinces.
I particularly commend my son to you, and I ask of you, in
remembrance of me, that you extend to him the love which
you have always borne towards me ; moreover I ask you to
preserve among yourselves the same affection and harmony.
Be just and zealous in the observance of the laws, preserve
respect for all that merits respect, and do not refuse to grant
to authority the support of which it stands in need.

Above all, beware of infection from the sects of neighbor-
ing lands. Extirpate at once the germs of heresy, should
they appear in your midst, for fear lest they may spread
abroad and utterly ruin your state, and lest you fall into the
direst calamities.

i68

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IV. Philip II of Spain

We have several descriptions of Philip II, the most
important and impartial of which are those of the Vene-
tian ambassadors. The king’s affability, industry, reli-
gion, and frail constitution are mentioned by all. In his
earlier years, however, he exhibited a Castilian haughti-
ness which he successfully overcame later.

280. Anesti- The Catholic king was born in Spain, in the month of

ambassador house of Portugal, — he was treated with all the defer-

ence and respect which seemed due to the son of the great-
est emperor whom Christendom had ever had, and to the
heir to such a number of realms and to such grandeur. As
a result of this education, when the king left Spain for the
first time and visited Flanders, passing on his way through
Italy and Germany, he everywhere made an impression of
haughtiness and severity, so that the Italians liked him but
little, the Flemings were quite disgusted with him, and the
Germans hated him heartily. But when he had been warned
by the cardinal of Trent and Queen Mary [of Hungary, his
aunt], and above all by his father, that this haughtiness was
not in place in a prince destined to rule over a number of
nations so different in manners and sentiment, he altered
his manner so completely that on his second journey, when
he went to England, he everywhere exhibited such distin-
guished mildness and affability that no prince has ever sur-
passed him in these traits.^ Although his actions display
that royal dignity and gravity which are natural and habitual
to him, he is none the less agreeable for this ; on the con-
trary, his courtesy toward all seems only the more striking.
His pleasing figure, his manly air, and his suavity of speech

^ For another estimate of Philip see above, p. 150.

The Catholic Reformation

169

and manner serve to enhance the pleasing effect. He is
slight in stature, but so well built, so admirably propor-
tioned, and dressed with such taste and discernment that
one could hardly imagine anything more perfect. . . .

Although the king resembles his father in his face and
speech, in his attention to his religious duties, and in his
habitual kindness and good faith, he nevertheless differs
from him in several of those respects in which the greatness
of rulers, after all, lies. The emperor was addicted to war,
which he well understood; the king knows but little of it
and has no love for it. The emperor undertook great enter-
prises with enthusiasm ; his son avoids them. The father
was fond of planning great things and would in the end
realize his wishes by his skill ; his son, on the contrary,
pays less attention to augmenting his own greatness than
to hindering that of others. The emperor never allowed
himself to be influenced by threats or fear, while the king
has lost some of his dominions owing to unreasonable appre-
hensions. The father was guided in all matters by his own
opinion ; the son follows the opinions of others.

In the king’s eyes no nation is superior to the Spaniards. It
is among them that he lives, it is they that he consults, and
it is they that direct his policy ; in all this he is acting quite
contrary to the habit of his father. He thinks little of the
Italians and Flemish and still less of the Germans. Although
he may employ the chief men of all the countries over which
he rules, he admits none of them to his secret counsels, but
utilizes their services only in military affairs, and then per-
haps not so much because he really esteems them, as in
the hope that he will in this way prevent his enemies from
making use of them.

In the letters which Philip II took great pains to
write regularly to his young daughters during a trying
campaign in Portugal, we discover no signs of a grim
despot bent on compassing the death of thousands of
his subjects, but rather of a kindly father who had an

Contrast
between
Charles V
and Philip II.

Philip’s
partiality
for Spain.

281. A let-
ter of Pliilip
II to his
daughters.

170 Readings in European History

ear for the nightingale’s song and an eye for the early
flowers, and who carefully observed when one of his
babies cut a tooth.

Lisbon, January 15, 1582.

It is good news for me to learn that you are so well. It
seems to me that your little sister is getting her eye teeth
pretty early. Perhaps they are in place of the two which I
am on the point of losing and which I shall probably no
longer have when I get back. But if I had nothing worse
to trouble me, that might pass. . . .

We are having terrible weather here ; torrents of rain
fall, sometimes with fearful claps of thunder and flashes of
lightning. I have never seen such weather at this season.
It would be a good thing for you, my elder daughter, if you
are still afraid of thunder. It is not cold, but it rains con-
tinuously, and just n(5w with such violence that you would say
that the whole sky was turning into water. There have been
some terrible storms, but there were not so many ships lost
as Luis Tristan [a servant] wrote to you ; indeed, I hardly
think any were lost, — nothing except a few little boats.
The last courier who had a letter from me for you has
probably been delayed, for the Tagus was raging so that
he could not leave Tuesday morning as usual, but started
Wednesday, so that I doubt if he will arrive before the
regular post leaves you.

I am inclined to think that Madeleine ^ is no longer so
out of patience with me ; but she has been ill for some time.
She took some physic, and since has been in a very bad
humor. She came here yesterday. She is in a sad state,
feeble, old, deaf, — in short, half dead. I believe that all
this comes from her drinking, and this is the reason that
she is so glad not to have her son-in-law with her. Yester-
day she told me that she no longer had any grudge against
the person called Mariola about whom she wrote to you,
whose real name is Maria Fernandez. I believe her, for I

1 An old servant to whom the king frequently refers in the letters to
his daughters.

The Catholic Reformation 17 1

think that she really likes to hear Mariola sing; and she
is right, for she sings very well, only she is so fat and big
that she can scarcely get through the door.

I am ready to believe that Lady Anna de Mendoza
takes as good care of your little brothers as you, my eldest
daughter, say that she does.

The other day some one gave me what I have inclosed
in this box and said that it was a sweet lime. I think, just
the same, that it is only a lemon, but nevertheless wanted
to send it to you. If it is really a sweet lime, I have never
seen one so big. I do not know if it will still be good when
it gets to you. If it is, taste it and let me know what it
proves to be, for I cannot believe that a lime ever was so
big, and consequently shall be pleased to be enlightened by
you. The little lemon which is in the box with it is only to
fill up the space.

I am sending you also some roses and an orange flower,
just to let you see that we have them here. Calabres brings
me bunches of both these flowers every day, and we have
had violets for a long time. There are no jonquils here ;
if there were, they ought to have blossomed by this time,
since we have these other flowers. After this rainy time I
imagine that you will be having flowers, too, by the time
my sister arrives, or soon after. God keep you as I would
have him !

V. The Revolt of the Netherlands

The Netherlands comprise thirteen provinces, to wit,
three lordships, four duchies, and six counties. The atmos-
phere is heavy and the sky almost always overcast. Owing
to the frequent changes in the wind, one has warm weather
and cold several times in the same day. Flanders abounds
in various commodities, but produces no wine. Artois raises
more grain than all the rest of the country together. Hol-
land enjoys an income of eight hundred thousand crowns
yearly from its butter and cheese. The number of towns,
large, medium, and small, amount to some hundred and

282. A
Venetian
ambassa-
dor’s de-
scription
of the

Netherlands
in 1557-
(Extracts,
condensed.)

Flemish

industries.

Flemish

art.

Prevalence
of heresy.

172 Readings in European History

forty. The largest have from six thousand to twenty-five
thousand families. The population of the whole country is
estimated at three millions.

The houses are not conveniently disposed and the archi-
tecture is not fine. They are for the most part of wood and
earth, but the public buildings constructed of stone make
a fine appearance. The churches and the open places are
remarkable. The streets are wide and adorned with numer-
ous superb fountains, but they are badly paved and might
be cleaner.

These provinces swarm with men who practice all the
useful arts. The greater number of them are weavers. In
Holland alone eight hundred thousand crowns’ worth of
linens are produced. The manufacture of wall hangings,
which goes on in several regions, amounts to nearly as
much, and the export of cloths of all kinds is much more
considerable still.

The people of the Netherlands excel all other nations in
their painting of landscapes and animals. They seem born
for music, and produce composers of eminence.

As for attendance upon divine service, nowhere does one
find more devotion. Almsgiving and processions take place
almost every Sunday in their churches. Nevertheless there are
many Lutherans and Anabaptists among them. Gelderland
is completely infected with them. There are many in Bra-
bant and especially in Antwerp, but they are more numer-
ous still in Holland and Artois. They are condemned to
be burned for this heresy, but they may escape this penalty
by retracting, when they lose their heads instead. It is a
notable thing that, although the cold climate makes the
inhabitants timorous, when condemned to death they face
their fate with rare courage.

Of the various proclamations — “placards,” as they
were popularly called — against heretics issued by
Charles V and confirmed by Philip II, the following
extracts from that which appeared in April, 1 5 50, will
give a good and sufficient idea.

The Catholic Reformation

173

No one, whatsoever his rank or condition, shall print,
transcribe, copy, or knowingly have by him, receive, carry,
keep, conceal, have in his possession, sell, buy, give, dis-
tribute, scatter, or let fall in churches, or on the street, or
in other places, any books or writings composed by Martin
Luther, John CEcolampadius, Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer,
John Calvin, or other heretics or promoters of their sects,
or of other bad and false sects condemned by the holy
Church. . . .

No one shall represent, or cause to be represented, sell,
or offer for sale, have, keep, or possess, any scandalous
figures, pictures, or images of the Virgin Mary, or of the
saints canonized by the Church, or of the clergy. Nor shall
any one break, destroy, or pull down the images or pictures
made in their honor.

No one shall, in his house or elsewhere, hold, or suffer to
be held, any secret conventicles or improper assemblies, nor
attend such, in which the said heretics and seducers sow
and privily inculcate their errors, rebaptizing and conspiring
against the holy Church and the government.

Moreover we forbid every one, laymen and others, to dis-
cuss or argue about the Holy Scriptures, whether in secret
or in public, especially touching important and doubtful
matters ; or to read aloud or teach to others the Holy Scrip-
tures, unless they be theologians versed in theology and ap-
proved by some well-known university. . . .

The penalty in case any one shall be discovered to have
violated any of the provisions herein stated shall be pun-
ishment fitting for seditious persons who are a peril to our
realm and the common weal, and as such they shall be exe-
cuted, the men by the sword, the women by being buried
alive, should they show no disposition to maintain or defend
their errors. Should they, however, persist in their opinions,
errors, and heresies, they shall be burned alive, and in every
case their goods shall be confiscated and declared forfeit
to us. . . .

All those who know of any one infected with heresy shall
be held to denounce, report, name, and bring him to the

283. “Pla-
card,” or
denuncia-
tion of
heretics,
issued by
Charles V

(1550).

Punishment
for heretics.

174

Readings in European History

284. Procla-
mation
outlawing
William the
Silent (1580)
(Condensed.)

attention of the inquisitor or officers of the bishops. . . .
Likewise all shall be required, if they know of any place
where any heretic is concealed, to report the same to the
officer of the place on pain of being regarded as an aider,
abettor, and adherent of heresy and of receiving the same
punishment as the heretic or delinquent, should he be
captured.

In 1580 Philip II decided to declare William the Silent
an outlaw and put a price upon his head. In so doing
he gives an interesting account of the troubles in the
Netherlands from a Spanish standpoint.

Philipp by the grace of God king of Castile, Leon, Aragon,
Navarre, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, the Indies and terra firma,
the Atlantic Ocean ; duke of Burgimdy, Lorrame, Braha7it,
Lhnburg, Luxemburg, Gelderla^id, Mila7i ; coimt of Flanders,
Artois, Hamault, Holla7id, Zeala7id, etc. ; to all to who7n
these prese7its 7nay co77ie, greetmg :

It is well known to all how favorably the late emperor,
Charles the Fifth, of -exalted memory, our father, treated
William of Nassau in the matter of the succession to his
cousin, the prince of Orange, and how, from William’s ear-
liest youth, he promoted his advancement, as we, since the
emperor’s death, have continued to do, by appointing him
lieutenant general of Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and Bur-
gundy, summoning him to our council of state, and heaping
upon him honors and emoluments. By reason of this and
the oaths of fidelity and homage taken to us for fiefs and
lands held of us in various of our countries and provinces,
he was specially bound to us, and under obligation to obey
and keep faith with us and safeguard our interests and to
do all in his power to secure peace and tranquillity in our
several dominions and provinces.

Nevertheless, as every one knows, we had scarcely turned
our back on the Netherlands before the said William of Nas-
sau (who had become, in the manner mentioned above, prince
of Orange) began to endeavor, by sinister arts, plots, and

The Catholic Reformation

175

intrigues, first to gain over those whom he believed to be
malcontents, or haters of justice, or anxious for innovations,
and then, above all, those who were suspected in the matter
of religion. These he flattered and attracted by fine words
and vain promises. He was the instigator and chief author
of the first protest which was presented by certain young
gentlemen who daily frequented his house and table.

Moreover, with the knowledge, advice, and encourage-
ment of the said Orange, the heretics commenced to destroy
the images, altars, and churches in a disorderly manner,
and to desecrate all holy and sacred objects, especially the
sacraments ordained of God. Yet, by divine grace and
the foresight of the duchess of Parma, our very dear sister,
matters were remedied, and he was forced to retire from
our dominions, breathing out threats of vengeance in his
rage. These he hoped to carry out the following year by
arms, but he was closely pursued by our army and driven
from our said lands, where he could get no foothold.

But when a little later some discontent arose among our
subjects in regard to the government of the duke of Alva
(who had succeeded the said lady), especially in the prov-
inces of Holland and Zealand, Orange managed to return.
Nevertheless he was only received on condition that he
would take a solemn oath to the estates of the said prov-
inces and towns, pledging himself to guard the said prov-
inces and towns for us, and in our obedience, and to change
nothing in the ancient Catholic and Roman religion. He
was, as governor, only to assist them against the duke of
Alva should he attempt to coerce and oppress them, as
Orange alleged that he proposed to do, - — namely, in the
matter of the tenth and twentieth penny which the duke
wished to collect. Now we had not ordered him to levy
this tax, and did not wish to have it levied except with the
good will and consent of our good subjects and in place of
other impositions from which it was proposed to free them.

Nevertheless, so soon as the said Nassau was received
into the said government of the provinces, he began, through
his agents and satellites, to introduce heretical preaching

Philip throws
the responsi-
bility for un-
popular taxes
on Alva.

176

ReadUigs in European History

Reward
offered for
the arrest or
assassination
of William
the Silent.

where he found it possible, persecuting all the good pastors,
preachers, monks, and upright persons, and hunting many
of them from the region. Then he had a number massa-
cred ; or rather, he tried to avoid the responsibility for a
massacre carried on by some of his adherents, until the
estates, greatly incensed by this cruelty, demanded an account
of the affair, when he pretended that it was displeasing to
him. Then he introduced liberty of conscience, or to speak
more correctly, confusion of all religion, which soon brought
it about that the Catholics were openly persecuted and driven
out, and the churches and monasteries, whether of men or
women, broken up, ruined, and leveled with the ground.

Although a married man, and although his second wife
was still alive, he took to himself a nun, an abbess who had
been solemnly sanctified by episcopal authority, and her he
still keeps ; a most disreputable and infamous thing, not
only according to the Christian religion, but the Roman
law as well.

Moreover he obtained such a hold upon our poor sub-
jects of Holland and Zealand and brought affairs to such
a pass that nearly all the towns, one after the other, have
been besieged and taken, either by assault or by capitula-
tion, so that more than once he was on the point of being
brought to bay by our arms, when the commander who suc-
ceeded the duke of Alva (whom we had recalled to please
our subjects) died. Then the said Nassau induced the
estates to demand the withdrawal of all the foreign troops
in hope of peace, but Nassau continued his machinations
and displayed all his craft in plunging our people into
war with our brother, whom we had appointed lieutenant
general. . . .

Therefore, for all these just reasons, for his evil doings
as chief disturber of the public peace and as a public pest,
we outlaw him forever and forbid all our subjects to asso-
ciate with him or communicate with him in public or in
secret. We declare him an enemy of the human race, and
in order the sooner to remove our people from his tyranny
and oppression, we promise, on the word of a king and as

The Catholic Reformation 177

God’s servant, that if one of our subjects be found so gen-
erous of heart and so desirous of doing us a service and
advantaging the public that he shall find means of execut-
ing this decree and of ridding us of the said pest, either by
delivering him to us dead or alive, or by depriving him at
once of life, we will give him and his heirs landed estates
or money, as he will, to the amount of twenty-five thousand
gold crowns. If he has committed any crime, of any kind
whatsoever, we will pardon him. If he be not noble, we
will ennoble him for his valor ; and should he require other
persons to assist him, we will reward them according to the
service rendered, pardon their crimes, and ennoble them too.

In answer to the charges brought against him the
prince of Orange published his famous “ Apology.”
This contains a good account of his life and a brief
history of the revolt of the Netherlands, in which he
played so important a part. A few passages only can
be given here.

.... What could be more gratifying in this world,
especially to one engaged in the great and excellent task
of securing liberty for a good people oppressed by evil men,
than to be mortally hated by one’s enemies, who are at the
same time enemies of the fatherland, and by their mouths
to receive a sweet testimony to one’s fidelity to his people
and to his obstinate opposition to tyrants and disturbers of
the peace? Such is the pleasure that the Spaniards and
their adherents have prepared for me in their anxiety to
disturb me. They have but gratified me by that infamous
proscription by which they sought to ruin me. Not only
do I owe to them this favor, but also the occasion to make
generally known the equity and justice of my enterprises. . . .

[If in reviewing my life I am forced to praise myself
and blame others] kindly attribute this, gentlemen, to the
situation in which my enemies have placed me, and throw
the blame upon their impudence and importunity. Remem-
ber, gentlemen, that I am falsely accused of being an ingrate,

285. Ex-
tracts from
the “Apol-
ogy” of
William the
Silent to
the estates

(1581).

1/8

Readings in Etiropean History

infidel, heretic, and hypocrite, a new Judas and Cain, a
disturber of the peace, a rebel, foreigner, enemy of the
human race, a public pest of the Christian commonwealth,
a traitor and scoundrel ; that I am exposed to be killed like
a beast, with a reward for any assassin or poisoner who will
undertake the job. It is for you to judge, gentlemen, whether,
in order to purge myself from the calumnies heaped upon
me, I may not be excused for departing from my usual habits
in speaking of myself and others. . . .

My enemies object that I have “ established liberty of
conscience.” I confess that the glow of fires in which so
many poor Christians have been tormented is not an agree-
able sight to me, although it may rejoice the eyes of the
duke of Alva and the Spaniards ; and that it has been my
opinion that persecutions should cease in the Netherlands.
I will confess, too, in order that my enemies may know that
they have to do with one who speaks out roundly and with-
out circumlocution, that when the king was leaving Zealand
he commanded me to put to death several worthy persons
suspected on account of their religion. I did not wish to
do this, and I could not with a clear conscience, so I warned
them myself, since one must obey God rather than men.
Let the Spaniards say what they please, I know several
nations and peoples who are quite their equals who will
approve and praise my conduct, for they have learned that
nothing is to be accomplished by fire and sword. . . .

They denounce me as a hypocrite, which is absurd
enough, since I have never resorted to dissimulation. As
their friend, I told them quite frankly that they were twist-
ing a rope to hang themselves when they began the barbar-
ous policy of persecution. If their unbounded passion and
their contempt for me had not prevented their following my
advice, they would never have come out where they did.
When later I became their opponent and enemy in the inter-
est of your freedom, I do not see what hypocrisy they could
discover in me, unless they call it hypocrisy to wage open
war, take cities, chase them out of the country, and inflict
upon them, without disguise, all the harm that the law of

The Catholic Reformation

179

war permits. But, gentlemen, if you will reread my “Justifi-
cation,” published thirteen years ago, you will find there the
letters of a deceitful and hypocritical king, who thought to
deceive me by his false and honeyed words, just as now
he would stun me by his threats and the thunder of his
denunciations. . . .

As for me personally, you see, gentlemen, that it is my
head that they are looking for, and that they have vowed my
death by offering such a great sum of money. They say
that the war can never come to an end so long as I am
among you. Might it please God that my perpetual exile,
or even my death, should bring you a true deliverance from
all the evils and calamities which the Spaniards are prepar-
ing for you and which I have so often seen them considering
in council and devising in detail ! How agreeable to me
would be such a banishment! how sweet death itself! . . .
Why have I so often endangered my life, what reward shall
I expect for my long labors for you, which have extended
into old age, and for the loss of my goods, if it be not to
obtain and purchase your liberty, even at the cost of my
blood if necessary?

If, then, gentlemen, you believe that my exile, or even
my death, may serve you, I am ready to obey your behests.
Here is my head, over which no prince or monarch has
authority save you. Dispose of it as you will for the safety
and preservation of our commonwealth. But if you judge
that such little experience and energy as I have acquired
through long and assiduous labors, if you judge that the
remainder of my possessions and of my life can be of ser-
vice to you, I dedicate them to you and to the fatherland.

VI. The Wars of Religion in France

The statesman and fair-minded historian, De Thou
(1553-1617), who as a young man witnessed the Mas-
sacre of St. Bartholomew, thus describes that terrible
event.

Readings in European History

286. The
Massacre
of St. Bar-
tholomew
and the
murder of
Coligny, as
described by
De Thou.

(This para-
graph is
much

condensed.)

So it was determined to exterminate all the Protestants,
and the plan was approved by the queen. They discussed
for some time whether they should make an exception of
the king of Navarre and the prince of Conde. All agreed
that the king of Navarre should be spared by reason of the
royal dignity and the new alliance. The duke of Guise,
who was put in full command of the enterprise, summoned
by night several captains of the Catholic Swiss mercenaries
from the five little cantons, and some commanders of
French companies, and told them that it was the will of
the king that, according to God’s will, they should take
vengeance on the band of rebels while they had the beasts
in the toils. Victory was easy and the booty great and to
be obtained without danger. The signal to commence the
massacre should be given by the bell of the palace, and
the marks by which they should recognize each other in
the darkness were a bit of white linen tied around the left
arm and a white cross on the hat.

Meanwhile Coligny awoke and recognized from the noise
that a riot was taking place. Nevertheless he remained
assured of the king’s good will, being persuaded thereof
either by his credulity or by Teligny, his son-in-law: he
believed the populace had been stirred up by the Guises,
and that quiet would be restored as soon as it was seen that
soldiers of the guard, under the command of Cosseins, had
been detailed to protect him and guard his property.

But when he perceived that the noise increased and that
some one had fired an arquebus in the courtyard of his
dwelling, then at length, conjecturing what it might be, but
too late, he arose from his bed and having put on his dress-
ing gown he said his prayers, leaning against the wall.
Labonne held the key of the house, and when Cosseins
commanded him, in the king’s name, to open the door
he obeyed at once without fear and apprehending nothing.
But scarcely had Cosseins entered when Labonne, who
stood in his way, was killed with a dagger thrust. The
Swiss who were in the courtyard, when they saw this, fled
into the house and closed the door, piling against it tables

The Catholic Ref ormation i8i

and all the furniture they could find. It was in the first
scrimmage that a Swiss was killed with a ball from an
arquebus fired by one of Cosseins’ people. But finally the
conspirators broke through the door and mounted the
stairway, Cosseins, Attin, Corberan de Cordillac, Seigneur
de Sarlabous, first captains of the regiment of the guards,
Achilles Petrucci of Siena, all armed with cuirasses, and
Besme the German, who had been brought up as a page in
the house of Guise; for the duke of Guise was lodged at
court, together with the great nobles and others who
accompanied him.

After Coligny had said his prayers with Merlin the
minister, he said, without any appearance of alarm, to those
who were present (and almost all were surgeons, for few
of them were of his retinue) : “ I see clearly that which
they seek, and I am ready steadfastly to suffer that death
which I have never feared and which for a long time past I
have pictured to myself. I consider myself happy in feeling
the approach of death and in being ready to die in God,
by whose grace I hope for the life everlasting. I have no
further need of human succor. Go then from this place,
my friends, as quickly as you may, for fear lest you shall
be involved in my misfortune, and that some day your
wives shall curse me as the author of your loss. For me it
is enough that God is here, to whose goodness I commend
my soul, which is so soon to issue from my body.” After
these words they ascended to an upper room, whence they
sought safety in flight here and there over the roofs.

Meanwhile the conspirators, having burst through the
door of the chamber, entered, and when Besme, sword in
hand, had demanded of Coligny, who stood near the door,
“Are you Coligny?” Coligny replied, “Yes, I am he,” with
fearless countenance. “ But you, young man, respect these
white hairs. What is it you would do ? You cannot shorten
by many days this life of mine.” As he spoke, Besme gave
him a sword thrust through the body, and having withdrawn
his sword, another thrust in the mouth, by which his face
was disfigured. So Coligny fell, killed with many thrusts.

1 82 Readings in European History

Others have written that Coligny in dying pronounced as
though in anger these words: “Would that I might at least
die at the hands of a soldier and not of a valet.” But Attin,
one of the murderers, has reported as I have written, and
added that he never saw any one less afraid in so great a
peril, nor die more steadfastly.

Then the duke of Guise inquired of Besme from the
courtyard if the thing were done, and when Besme answered
him that it was, the duke replied that the Chevalier d’An-
gouleme was unable to believe it unless he saw it; and at
the same time that he made the inquiry they threw the
body through the window into the courtyard, disfigured as
it was with blood. When the Chevalier d’Angouleme, who
could scarcely believe his eyes, had wiped away with a cloth
the blood which overran the face and finally had recog-
nized him, some say that he spurned the body with his
foot. However this may be, when he left the house with
his followers he said: “Cheer up, my friends! Let us do
thoroughly that which we have begun. The king commands
it.” He frequently repeated these words, and as soon as
they had caused the bell of the palace clock to ring, on
every side arose the cry, “ To arms 1 ” and the people ran
to the house of Coligny. After his body had been treated
to all sorts of insults, they threw it into a neighboring
stable, and finally cut off his head, which, they sent to
Rome. They also shamefully mutilated him, and dragged
his body through the streets to the bank of the Seine, a
thing which he had formerly almost prophesied, although
he did not think of anything like this.

As some children were in the act of throwing the body
into the river, it was dragged out and placed upon the
gibbet of Montfaucon, where it hung by the feet in chains
of iron ; and then they built a fire beneath, by which he
was burned without being consumed ; so that he was, so to
speak, tortured with all the elements, since he was killed
upon the earth, thrown into the water, placed upon the fire,
and finally put to hang in the air. After he had served for
several days as a spectacle to gratify the hate of many and

The Catholic Reformation 183

arouse the just indignation of many others, who reckoned
that this fury of the people would cost the king and France
many a sorrowful day, Francois de Montmorency, who was
nearly related to the dead man, and still more his friend,
and who moreover had escaped the danger in time, had
him taken by night from the gibbet by trusty men and car-
ried to Chantilly, where he was buried in the chapel.

The edict of Henry IV “ for the pacification of the
troubles in his realms,” commonly called the Edict of
Nantes, is dated from that town, April, 1598. It is very
voluminous, containing as it does ninety-two articles in
the main body of the edict, and fifty-six additional arti-
cles, designed to reassure the Huguenots. A few only
of its more important provisions are given below.

Henry, by the grace of God king of France and of Navarre, to
all to whom these presents come, greeting :

Among the infinite benefits which it has pleased God to
heap upon us, the most signal and precious is his granting
us the strength and ability to withstand the fearful dis-
orders and troubles which prevailed on our advent in this
kingdom. The realm was so torn by innumerable factions
and sects that the most legitimate of all the parties was
fewest in numbers. God has given us strength to stand out
against this storm ; we have finally surmounted the waves
and made our port of safety, — peace for our state. For
which his be the glory all in all, and ours a free recognition
of his grace in making use of our instrumentality in the
good work. . . . We implore and await from the Divine
Goodness the same protection and favor which he has ever
granted to this kingdom from the beginning. . . .

We have, by this perpetual and irrevocable edict, estab-
lished and proclaimed and do establish and proclaim :

I. First, that the recollection of everything done by one
party or the other between March, 1585, and our accession
to the crown, and during all the preceding period of

287. Ex-
tracts from
the Edict
of Nantes

(1598).

General

amnesty.

184

Readmgs in European Hist07y

The Catholic
worship to be
everywhere
restored.

Huguenots
not to be
annoyed.

Extent to
which Protes-
tant services
are to be
tolerated.

troubles, remain obliterated and forgotten, as if no such
things had ever happened.

III. We ordain that the Catholic Apostolic and Roman
religion shall be restored and re&tablished in all places and
localities of this our kingdom and countries subject to our
sway, where the exercise of the same has been interrupted,
in order that it may be peaceably and freely exercised, with-
out any trouble or hindrance ; forbidding very expressly all
persons, of whatsoever estate, quality, or condition, from
troubling, molesting, or disturbing ecclesiastics in the cele-
bration of divine service, in the enjoyment or collection of
tithes, fruits, or revenues of their benefices, and all other
rights and dues belonging to them ; and that all those who
during the troubles have taken possession of churches,
houses, goods or revenues, belonging to the said ecclesiastics,
shall surrender to them entire possession and peaceable
enjoyment of such rights, liberties, and sureties as they
had before they were deprived of them.

VI. And in order to leave no occasion for troubles or
differences between our subjects, we have permitted, and
herewith permit, those of the said religion called Reformed ^
to live and abide in all the cities and places of this our
kingdom and countries of our sway, without being annoyed,
molested, or compelled to do anything in the matter of
religion contrary to their consciences, . . . upon condition
that they comport themselves in other respects according
to that which is contained in this our present edict.

VII. It is permitted to all lords, gentlemen, and other
persons making profession of the said religion called
Reformed, holding the right of high justice [or a certain
feudal tenure], to exercise the said religion in their houses.

1 This official designation for Protestantism in France — namely,
“the religion called the Reformed” {Religion prRendue reformee) —
was in no way insulting to the Huguenots, as some Protestant writers
have supposed. Pretendre commonly means “claim ” or “ allege ” rather
than “pretend.” Henry IV, as king of a Catholic country, could go no
farther in referring to the Huguenots than to call them the religious
party which followed what they alleged or claimed to be a reformed
Christianity.

The Catholic Refo^'mation 185

IX. We also permit those of the said religion to make
and continue the exercise of the same in all villages and
places of our dominion where it was established by them
and publicly enjoyed several and divers times in the year
1597, up to the end of the month of August, notwithstand-
ing all decrees and judgments to the contrary.

XIII. We very expressly forbid to all those of the said
religion its exercise, either in respect to ministry, regulation,
discipline, or the public instruction of children, or other-
wise, in this our kingdom and lands of our dominion,
otherwise than in the places permitted and granted by the
present edict.

XIV. It is forbidden as well to perform any function of
the said religion in our court or retinue, or in our lands
and territories beyond the mountains, or in our city of
Paris, or within five leagues of the said city.

XVIII. We also forbid all our subjects, of whatever
quality and condition, from carrying off by force or per-
suasion, against the will of their parents, the children of
the said religion, in order to cause them to be baptized or
confirmed in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church ;
and the same is forbidden to those of the said religion
called Reformed, upon penalty of being punished with
especial severity.

XXI. Books concerning the said religion called Reformed
may not be printed and publicly sold, except in cities and
places where the public exercise of the said religion is
permitted.

XXII. We ordain that there shall be no difference or
distinction made in respect to the said religion, in receiving
pupils to be instructed in universities, colleges, and schools;
nor in receiving the sick and poor into hospitals, retreats,
and public charities.

XXIII. Those of the said religion called Reformed shall
be obliged to respect the laws of the Catholic Apostolic
and Roman Church, recognized in this our kingdom, for the
consummation of marriages contracted, or to be contracted,
as regards the degrees of consanguinity and kinship.

No Protes-
tant services
to be held
in Paris.

Restrictions
on Protes-
tant books.

i86

Readings in European History

VII. Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth

James Melville, a trusted ambassador of Mary Queen
of Scots, tells in his Me^noirs of an interview with
Queen Elizabeth in 1564, when she was thirty-one years
of age.

288. Mel-
ville’s im-
pressions of
Elizabeth
in 1564.

During nine days that I remained at the court it pleased
her Majesty to confer with me every day and sometimes
thrice in a day, — in the morning, after dinner, and after
supper. Sometimes she would say that, seeing she could not
meet with the queen [i.e. Mary], her good sister, to con-
fer with her familiarly, she was resolved to open a good
part of her inward mind to me, that I might show it again
to the queen. . . . [She said,] “I am resolved never to
marry if I be not thereto necessitated hy the queen, my
sister’s, harsh behavior toward me.” “ I know the truth
of that, madam,” said I; “you need not tell me. Your
Majesty thinks if you were married you would be but
queen of England ; and now you are both king and queen.
I know your spirit cannot endure a commander.”

She appeared to be so affectionate to the queen, her good
sister, that she expressed a great desire to see her ; and
because their (so much by her desired) meeting could not
be so hastily brought to pass she appeared with great
delight to look upon her Majesty’s picture. . . .

The queen, my mistress, had instructed me to leave mat-
ters of gravity sometimes and cast in merry purposes, lest
otherwise I should be wearied, she being well informed of
that queen’s natural temper. Therefore, in declaring my
observations of the customs of Dutchland, Poland, and
Italy, the buskins of the women was not forgot, and what
country weed [i.e. costume] I thought best becoming gen-
tlewomen. The queen said she had clothes of every sort;
which every day thereafter, so long as I was there, she
changed. One day she had the English weed, another
the French, another the Italian, and so forth. She asked
me which of them became her best. I answered, in my

The Catholic Refoi'mation

• 187

judgement, the Italian dress ; which answer I found pleased
her well, for she delighted to show her golden-colored hair,
wearing a caul and bonnet as they do in Italy.

Her hair was more reddish than yellow, curled in appear-
ance naturally. She desired to know of me what color of
hair was reputed best, and whether my queen’s hair or hers
was best, and which of them two was fairest. I answered
that the fairness of them both was not their worst faults.
But she was earnest with me to declare which of them I
judged fairest. I said she was the fairest queen in England
and mine the fairest queen in Scotland. Yet she appeared
earnest. I answered they were both the fairest ladies in
their countries ; that her Majesty was whiter, but my queen
was very lovesome.

She inquired which of them was of highest stature. I
said my queen. “Then,” saith she, “she is too high; for
I myself am neither too high nor too low.” Then she asked
what kind of exercises she used. I answered that when I
received my dispatch the queen was but lately come from
the highland hunting; that when her more serious affairs
permitted she was taken up with reading of histories ; that
she sometimes recreated herself in playing upon the lute
and virginals. She asked if she played well. I said, reason-
ably, for a queen.

The news of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew filled
England with, horror and apprehension. The bishop of
London writes to Lord Burleigh, Elizabeth’s chief ad-
viser, as follows :

Theese evill tymes trouble all good mens headdes, and
make their heartes ake, fearinge that this barbarous treach-
erie will not ceasse in Fraunce, but will reach over unto us.
Neither feare we the mangling of our body, but we sore
dreade the hurt of our Head [i.e. the Queen] : for therin
consisteth our lief and saftie. We shall dutiefullie praie.
Give you good advise. And God, I trust, will deliver us
owt of the mouthe of the waringe Lyon. . . .

289. The
bishop of
London on
the dangers
suggested
by the
Massacre of
St. Bar-
tholomew

(1572).

i88 •

Readings in European History

The advice
of the bishop
in regard to
the treatment
of Mary
Stuart and
the Catholics.

Sundrie have required a publique Paste and Praier to be
had, for the confoundinge of theese and other cruell ene-
mies of Goddes gospeil, but this I will not consent unto
withowt warraunt from hir Majestie. Thus am I bolde to
unfolde a peece of my mynde on the sudden, and to make
yow pertaker of my simple cogitacions, knowinge that
accordinge to yowr olde wonte, you will take the same
in good parte. Hasten hir Majestie homewarde, hir safe
returne to London will comforth many heartes oppressed
with feare. God preserve yow, and directe yow with his
spirite to counsell to his glorie. In haste from my howse
at Fulham this vth. of September, 1572.

Yor. L. humble at commandment,

Ed. London.

The saftie of our Queue and Realme yf God will.

1. Furthwith to cutte of the Scottish Queen’s heade^:

2. To remove from our Queue Papistes, and suche as by
private persuasion overthrowe good counsell.

3. The Q. majestie to be garded stronglie with Protes-
tants, and others to be removed.

4. Order must be taken for the safe kepinge of the Tower,
and for good order to be had in London for strengthen-
inge of the Citie, and that they receave no Papaist of
strengthe to sojourne there this wynter.

5. A firme League to be made with the yonge Scottishe
Kinge and the Protestants there.

6. A League to be made with the Princes Protestant of
Germanie, offensive and defensive.

7. The chiefe Papists of this realme are to be shutte uppe
in the Tower, and the popishe olde Bishoppes to be returned
thither.

1 The official account of the beheading of Queen Mary, which did
not take place for nearly fifteen years after this advice was given,
may be read in part in Miss Kendall’s Source Book of English History,
pp.

The Catholic Refoi'mation 189

8. The Gospell earnestlie to be promoted, and the
Churche not burdened with unnecessarie ceremonies.

9. The Protestants, which onlie are faithfull subjects,
are to be comforted, preferred, and placed in authoritie,
the Papistes are to be displaced.

Theese put in execution, wolde twrne to Goddes glory,
the saftie of the Quene’s Majestie and make the Realme
fiorishe and stande.

VIII. The Latter Part of Elizabeth’s Reign

The following letter from John Hawkins, the famous
English mariner, who participated in the fight against
the Armada, gives a lively notion of the conflict with
the Spanish fleet, which was in progress as he wrote.

My bounden duty humbly remembered unto your good
lordship. I have not busied myself to write often to your
lordship in this great cause, for that my lord admiral doth
continually advertise the manner of all things that doth
pass. So do others that do understand the state of all
things as well as myself. We met with this fleet somewhat
to the westward of Plymouth upon Sunday in the morning,
being the 21st of July, where we had some small fight with
them in the afternoon. By the coming aboard one of the
other of the Spaniards, a great ship, a Biscayan, spent her
foremast and bowsprit, which was left by the fleet in the
sea, and so taken up by Sir Francis Drake the next morn-
ing. The same Sunday there was, by a fire chancing by a
barrel of powder, a great Biscayan spoiled and abandoned,
which my lord took up and sent away. The Tuesday fol-
lowing, athwart of Portland, we had a sharp and long fight
with them, wherein we spent a great part of our powder
and shot, so as it was not thought good to deal with them
any more till that was relieved.

The Thursday following, by the occasion of the scatter-
ing of one of the great ships from the fleet which we hoped
to have cut off, there grew a hot fray, wherein some store

290. John
Hawkins’
letter about
the fight
with the
Armada
(July, 1588).

Readings in European History

Destination
of the
Armada.

190

of powder was spent ; and after that little done until we
came near to Calais, where the fleet of Spain anchored,
and our fleet by them ; and because they should not be in
peace there, to refresh their water or to have conference
with those of the duke of Parma’s party, my lord admiral,
with firing of ships, determined to remove them ; as he did,
and put them to the seas ; in which broil the chief galleass
spoiled her rudder, and so rode ashore near the town of
Calais, where she was possessed of our men, but so aground
that she could not be brought away.

That morning being Monday, the 29th of July, we fol-
lowed the Spaniards, and all that day had with them a long
and great fight, wherein there was great valor showed gen-
erally by our company. In this battle there was spent very
much of our powder and shot ; and so the wind began to
blow westerly, a fresh gale, and the Spaniards put them-
selves somewhat to the northward, where we follow and
keep company with them. ...

Our ships, God be thanked, have received little hurt,
and are of great force to accompany them, and of such
advantage that with some continuance at the seas, and
sufficiently provided of shot and powder, we shall be able,
with God’s favor, to weary them out of the sea and con-
found them. Yet as I gather certainly, there are amongst
them fifty forcible and invincible ships. There are thirty
hulks and thirty small ships, whereof little account is to be
made. . . .

At their departing from Lisbon the soldiers were twenty
thousand, the mariners and others eight thousand ; so as,
in all, they were twenty-eight thousand men. Their com-
mission was to confer with the prince of Parma, as I learn,
and then proceed to the service that should be there con-
cluded ; and so the duke to return into Spain with these
ships and mariners, the soldiers and their furniture being
left behind. Now this fleet is here and very forcible, and
must be waited upon with all our force, which is little
enough. There should be an infinite quantity of powder
and shot provided and continually sent abroad ; without

The Catholic Reformation igi

the which great hazard may grow to our country ; for this
is the greatest and strongest combination, to my under-
standing, that ever was gathered in Christendom ; there-
fore I wish it, of all hands, to be mightily and diligently
looked into and cared for. . . .

And so, praying to God for a happy deliverance from the
malicious and dangerous practice of our enemies, I humbly
take my leave. From the sea, aboard the Victory, the last
of July, 1588.

The Spaniards take their course for Scotland ; my lord
doth follow them. I doubt not, with God’s favor, but we
shall impeach their landing. There must be order for
victual and money, powder and shot, to be sent after us.

Your lordship’s humbly to command,

John Hawkyns.

In a letter written shortly after Elizabeth’s death by
one well acquainted with her court, we have a good
description of her chief traits and tastes.

I will proceed with the description of the queen’s dispo-
sition and natural gifts of mind and body, wherein she
either matched or exceeded all the princes of her time, as
being of a great spirit yet tempered with moderation, in
adversity never dejected, in prosperity rather joyful than
proud ; affable to her subjects, but always with due regard
to the greatness of her estate, by reason whereof she was
both loved and feared.

In her later time, when she showed herself in public, she
was always magnificent in apparel ; supposing haply thereby
that the eyes of her people (being dazzled by the glittering
aspect of those her outward ornaments) would not so easily
discern the marks of age and decay of natural beauty ; and
she came abroad the more seldom, to make her presence
the more grateful and applauded by the multitude, to whom
things rarely seen are in manner as new.

She suffered not, at any time, any suitor to depart dis-
contented from her, and though ofttimes he obtained not

291. Eliza-
beth’s
character
and tastes.
(From an
unknown
contem-
porary.)

192

Readings in European History

Elizabeth’s

learning.

that he desired, yet he held himself satisfied with her man-
ner of speech, which gave hope of success in the second
attempt. . . .

She was accounted in her latter time to be very near, and
oversparing of expense ; and yet, if the rewards which she
gave of mere motion and grace had been bestowed of merit,
with due respect, they had doubtless purchased her the
name of a very liberal prince. . . .

She was very rich in jewels, which had been given her
by her subjects ; for in times of progress there was no per-
son that entertained her in his house but (besides his
extraordinary charge in feasting her and her train) he
bestowed a jewel upon her ; a custom in former times
begun by some of her especial favorites that (having in
great measure tasted of her bounty) did give her only of
her own ; though otherwise that kind of giving was not so
pleasing to gentlemen of meaner quality.

Touching these commendable qualities whereto, partly
by nature and partly by education and industry, she had
attained, there were few men that (when time and occasion
served) could make better use or more show of them than
herself. The Latin, French, and Italian she could speak
very elegantly, and she was able in all those languages to
answer ambassadors on the sudden. Her manner of writing
was somewhat obscure and the style not vulgar, as being
either learned by imitation of some author whom she
delighted to read, or else affected for difference’ sake, that
she might not write in such phrases as were commonly
used. Of the Greek tongue also she was not altogether
ignorant. She took pleasure in reading of the best and
wisest histories, and some part of Tacitus’ Annals she her-
self turned into English for her private exercise. She also
translated Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae, and a trea-
tise of Plutarch, De Curiositate^ with divers others.

For her private pleasures, she used them moderately and
warily, without touch to her reputation or offense to her
people. She was in her diet very temperate, as eating but
a few kinds of meat and those not compounded ; the wine

The Catholic Reformation

she drank was mingled with water, containing three parts
more in quantity than the wine itself. Precise hours of
refection she observed not, as never eating but when her
appetite required it. In matters of recreation, as singing,
dancing, and playing upon instruments, she was not igno-
rant or excellent : a measure which in things indifferent
best beseems a prince.

She was of nature somewhat hasty, but quickly appeased ;
ready there to show most kindness where a little before
she had been most sharp in reproving. Her greatest grief
of mind and body she either patiently endured or politicly
dissembled. I have heard it credibly reported that, not
long before her death, she was divers times troubled with
the gout in her fingers, whereof she would never complain,
as seeming better pleased to be thought insensible of the
pain than to acknowledge the disease. . . .

It is credibly reported that not long before her death
she had a great apprehension of her own age and declina-
tion by seeing her face (then lean and full of wrinkles)
truly represented to her in a glass, which she a good while
very earnestly beheld ; perceiving thereby how often she
had been abused by flatterers (whom she held in too great
estimation) that had informed her the contrary.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Catholic Reformation ; Walker, The Reformation, pp. 356-367 ; A. Refer-
Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, pp. 639-650. ences.

The Jesuits : Hausser, Period of the Reformatio7i, Chapter XX,
pp. 265-273; Walker, pp. 367-392; Cafiibridge Modern History,

Vol. II, pp. 651-659.

Council of Trent: Hausser, pp. 258-264; Cambridge Modemi His-
tory, Vol. II, pp. 659-689.

Spain under Philip II : Ca7ubridge Modern History, Vol. Ill, Chap-
ter XV, pp. 475-525-

Revolt of the Netherlands : Johnson, Etiropean History, 1494-
1598, Chapter VIII, pp. 315-386; Hausser, Chapters XXI-XXV,
pp. 276-344; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. HI, Chapters VI-VII,
pp. 182-259.

194

Readings in European History

French Wars of Religion: Johnson, Chapter IX, pp. 387-448;
Hausser, Chapter XXV, pp. 345-381; Cambridge Modern History,
Vol. Ill, Chapter I, pp. 1-52.

Henry IV of France : Hausser, Chapter XXIX, pp. 382-401 ; Dyer
and Hassall, Vol. Ill, Chapter XXVI, pp. 41-75, and Chapters XXVII
and XXIX, passim.

Mary Queen of Scots : Green, Short History, pp. 379-392, Cambridge
Modern History, Voi. Ill, Chapter VIII, pp. 260-293.

Elizabeth: Cheyney, Short History of England, Chapter XIII,
pp. 330-381; Terry, History of England, pp. 587-617; Andrews,
History of England, pp. 286-325 ; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. Ill,
Chapter X, pp. 328-363.

The Armada: Green, pp. 413-420; Cambridge Modern History,
Vol. Ill, Chapter IX, pp. 294-327.

Elizabethan Literature ; Green, pp. 420-442 ; Cambridge Moderji
History, Vol. Ill, Chapter XI, pp. 364-382.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

Symonds, John A., The Catholic Reaction, Chapter II, “ The Coun-
cil of Trent ” ; Chapter III, “ The Inquisition ” ; and Chapter IV, “ The
Jesuits.” Readable but extremely unsympathetic.

Ward, A. W., The Qounter Reformation, 1889 (in Epochs of Church
History Series).

Froude, Lectures on the Council of Trent. Especially Chapters
VIII-XIII. A vivacious account by a gifted but inaccurate scholar.

Prescott, Reign of Philip II, 3 vols. See above, p. 28.

Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, 3 vols. The bias and inaccuracy
of this brilliant and celebrated work can best be seen by comparing it
with the painstaking if rather dry work of a modern Dutch historian,
namely, Blok, A History of the People of the Netherlands, Vol. Ill,
Chapters I-VII (translated by Ruth Putnam).

Putnam, Ruth, Williajn the Silent, 2 vols. A scholarly biography,
admirably illustrated.

Baird, The Rise of the Huguenots, 2 vols., and The Huguenots and
Henry of Navarre, 2 vols. By an ardent partisan of the Huguenots.

Ranke, History of the Popes, 3 vols. (Bohn Library). This is a
history of the papacy since the opening of the Protestant Revolt.
Vol. Ill is devoted to documents and discussion of the sources.

Jackson, C. C., The Last of the Valois, 2 vols., 1888, and The First
of the Bourbons, 2 vols., 1890.

Hume, Philip II of Spain, 1902.

The Catholic Reformation

195

The Autobiography of St. Ignatius Loyola, edited by J. F. X.
O’Conor, S.J., New York, 1900. A translation of the most authen-
tic account of Loyola’s life, from data he himself dictated.

Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, translated by Rev. J.
Waterworth ; and Catechis7n of the Comicil of Trent, translated by Rev.
J. Donovan. It is scarcely necessary to say that these official utter-
ances of the council deserve the most careful study.i The catechism
was first issued in 1566. It was drawn up by a commission appointed
by the pope, to whom the matter had been delegated by the council.

Armstrong, The French Wars of Religion, 1892.

Whitehead, A. W., Caspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, 1904.

Sully, Memoirs, 4 vols. (Bohn Library). This is not a translation
of the original as dictated by Sully, but of an adaptation made in the
eighteenth century to suit the taste of the time. See below, under C.

Creighton, The Age of Elizabeth (in the Epochs of Modern History).
Also by the same. Queen Elizabeth, 1896 ; cheaper edition, without
illustrations, 1899. These excellent volumes may be supplemented by
Beesley, Elizabeth.

Lang, Andrew, The Alystery of Mary Stuart, 1901. A recent
review of all the evidence of her guilt in the murder of her husband.

Simpson, Life of Cainpion, 1867. An excellent account of one of
the Jesuits who suffered martyrdom under Elizabeth.

Payne, Voyages of Elizabethait Seamen, 2 vols.

Stow (1525-1605), A Survey of London, first published in 1598 ;
Harrison (1534-1593), Description of England (convenient edition in
the Camelot Series). These are two important and amusing accounts
of English habits and dress by contemporaries.

Saintsbury, Elizabethan Literature, a useful short work on a great
subject.

Maurenbrecher, Geschichte der katholischen Reformation, Vol. I,
1880. This admirable work was never completed, but gives an excel-
lent idea of the progress of the reform movement within the Church
previous to 1534.

Lav.isse, Histoire de France. Vol. VI, Part I, by Mari^jOL (1904),
covers the period 1559-1598.

Philippson, M., Westeuropa im Zeitalter von Philipp II, Elizabeth,
und Heinrich IV, 1882 (in the Oncken Series).

Wolf, G., Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Gegenreformation,
Vol. I, 1899. The first volume of an exhaustive work.

C. Materials
for advanced
sttidy.

1 See reference to this catechism above, p. 160.

196

Readings in European History

The Council
of Trent.

The Society
of Jesus.

Ranke, Die Osmaiten und die spanische Monarchie im sechzehnten
und siebzehnten Jahrhundert, 4th ed.

There are two famous old histories of the Council of Trent. In 1619
there appeared in England an account of the council (Storia del concilio
Tride7itino, which may be had in an old English translation) which
was later discovered to have been written by Fra Paolo Sarpi, who,
without being a Protestant, was very hostile to the papal power. The
writer made use of much material not readily available to other writers,
and is still regarded with respect by impartial critics. His work aroused
much angry criticism, especially among the Jesuits, who selected one of
their number, Pallavicino, to refute Sarpi. The Jesuit’s history of the
council {Isioria del concilio di Trento) appeared in 1656, and pointed
out 361 alleged errors in his predecessor’s work. Pallavicino’s volumes
are based upon a vast amount of material in Rome which was freely
thrown open to him. Its merits and defects, as well as those of Sarpi’s
treatise, are set forth by Ranke in the “ Analecten” appended to his
Die rmiischen Pdpste (Bohn edition, Vol. Ill, pp. 103 sqqi).

Raynaldus, Annales Ecclesiastici, contains a good account of the
council. Decreta et canones Concilii Tridentini, first issued in Rome in
1664, are to be had in many editions. Tauchnitz publishes a convenient
modern edition. That edited by Richter contains all the interpretations
and modifications made since the council finished its work.

Le Plat, Mo7iiime>ita ad historiam Concilii Trideiitini spectantia,
7 vols., 1781-1787. This voluminous collection is now being replaced
by newer and more carefully edited texts. Under the title Acta genuina
Co7icilii Tridentini, Theiner published, in 1874, the proceedings of the
council edited j ust after its close by Angelo Massarelli, its secretary. The
Gdrres Gesellschaft (a German, Catholic historical association) is pub-
lishing CoJicilinm Tridejitinuni : diariorum, actorum, epistiilarum, trac-
tatnum nova collectio. Vols. I and IV have appeared, the latter contain-
ing much important material relating to the antecedents of the council.
Other collections are also in progress, — for example, the Momaneiita
Tridentina, edited by Druffel and Brandi, under the auspices of the
Munich Academy, and containing the invaluable letters and papers of
Cardinal Cervino, a secretary of Paul III (Vol. I, 1884-1899).

Stewart Rose, St. Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits, edited by
Rev. W. H. Eyre, S.J., London. Best recent work in English.

W. VAN Nieuwenhoff, Leben des heiligen Ignatius von Loyola,
2 vols., Regensburg, 1901.

Gothein, Ignatius von Loyola und die Gege7irefor7nation, 1895. An
excellent recent Protestant account.

The Catholic Reformation

197

Huber, Johannes, Der Jesuitorden nach seiner Verfassung und Dok-
trin, Wirksamkeit und Geschichte charakterisiert, Berlin, 1873. Critical,
liberal Catholic in tone.

Cretinau-Joly, Histoire religieuse, politique et litteraire de la Com-
pagnie de Jisus, 6 vols., 1845-1846, and later editions. In spite of some
deficiencies, perhaps the chief work from the Jesuit’s standpoint.

Bartoli, Della vita e delV institute di S. Ignazio, 1650, new ed. 1893.
Highly esteemed by the Jesuit scholars. There are good articles on the
Jesuits in the Kirchenlexikon and in the Realencyclopddie.

For the sources, especially the early lives of Loyola, one should
turn to the Acta Sanctorum, July, Vol. VII, where Jesuit scholars have
piously collected what is known of their founder. The Acta antiquissima,
taken down by Consalvus from Loyola’s own dictation, is the best
source. For an English translation of this, see under B, above. The
Spanish Jesuits are engaged, in iheix Monumenta historica Societatis Jesu,
in adding to the material already available (Madrid and Freiburg,
1898 sqql). They have published many letters of Loyola, Cartas de S.
Ignacio de Loyola, 6 vols., 1874-1889.

The doctrines of the Jesuits are discussed in Dollinger, Geschichte
der Moralstreitigkeiten, 2 vols., 1889. In regard to their great role as
confessors, see Lea, History of Confession and Indulgences, Vol. II,
especially Chapters XX-XXI. Pascal’s famous Provincial Letters are
directed against the teachings of the Jesuits.

Schafer, E., Beitrdge zur Geschichte des spanischen Protestantismus
und der Lnquisition im sechzehnten fahrhundert, 3 vols, 1902.

Lea, Henry C., The Moriscos of Spain, their Conversion and
Expulsion (1901); Chapters from the Religious History of Spain con-
nected with the Lnquisition (1890). These are two by-products of the
years of study which Mr. Lea has devoted to the Inquisition. His great
work on the Spanish Inquisition, which is soon to appear in four vol-
umes, will supplant all the older treatises, the best known of which is
Llorent, Histoire adtique de I'inquisition d' Espagne, 4 vols., 1818.

Rodrigo, Historia verdadera de la Inquisicion, 3 vols., Madrid, 1876.
The chief modern work from a Catholic standpoint.

Eymeric, Directorium Lnquisitorum (see above, Vol. I, p. 397).
This manual, prepared in the fourteenth century, continued to be
regarded as a standard during the sixteenth century and later.

Reusch, Fr. H., Der Index der verbotenen Bucher, Ein Beitrag zur
Kircheii- und Literatur geschichte, 2 vols., 1883-1885. Reusch has
reprinted the rarest of the indices in Die Indices librorum prohibitorum
des sechzehnten fahrhunderts, 1886.

The Spanish
Inquisition.

The censor-
ship of the
press and
the Index,

198

Readings in Europeati History

The Nether-
lands.

Wars of
religion in
France.

England

under

Elizabeth,

For the history of the Netherlands, a great mass of original material
is available, much of which has been published during the past fifty
years, — for example, Collectioii de memoires sur Vhistoire de Belgique
aux XVB, XVIF, et XVIIF si'ecles, 47 vols., 1858-1875. Gachard
has edited the Correspondance de Philippe II sur les affaires des Pays
Bas, 5 vols., 1848-1875, and the Correspondance de Guillaw7ie le Taci-
turite, 6 vols., 1847-1857. (See ample bibliography at the close of Ruth
Putnam’s William the Silent and in the Cajnbridge Modern History,
Vol. Ill, pp. 798-809.)

For France during the wars of religion we have two distinguished
contemporary historians : De Thou (d. 1617), who has given a remark-
ably impartial account of the troubles in his Historia sui te?nporis, first
published in 1604 (a French translation was published in 1659); and
Theodore Agrippa D’Aubign6 (d. 1630), whose Histoire univer-
selle (1550-1601), edited by De Ruble, 7 vols., 1886 sqq. (Societe de
I’histoire de France), is written from a Protestant standpoint. This
D’Aubigne must not be confused with Merle D’Aubigne (d. 1872),
whose worthless History of the Refo7'ination is all too commonly met with.

Sully, Memoires des sages et royales cecono^nies d’estat, etc., in
Michaud and Poujoulat, Nouvelle Collection des Memoires, Vols. XVI-
XVII. These well-known but unreliable reminiscences were dictated by
Sully to his secretaries, after his retirement from office. They may be par-
tially controlled by the Recueil des lettres missives de He7iri IV, 9 vols.
{^Documents inedits), 1843-1876. There is no good critical edition.

Lavisse, Vie de Sully, 1880.

Abbe Jousset, Henri IV et son Temps, 1894.

Tilley, A., The Literature of the French Renaissance, 2 vols., 1904.

Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la lajigue et de la litter ature fran-
qaise, Vol. III.

Marsden, History of the Early Puritans, 2d ed., 1853.

Taunton, The History of the fesuits in England, igSo-i'j’jg, 1901.
A valuable account by a Catholic.

Walsh, W., The Jesuits hi Great Britain, 1903. Emphasizes espe-
cially their political role.

Hume Brown, History of Scotland, Vol. II.

Rait, Mary Queen of Scots. Gives the contemporary records in
regard to Mary.

Hume, Martin A. S., has published several important special
works on Elizabeth’s time. Among these are The Great Lord Burghley
(1898) ; The Year after the Armada (1896) ; Philip II of Spain (1897) ;
Treason and Plot (1901).

The Catholic Reformation 199

For economic matters, see especially Cunningham, The Growth of
English Industry and Commerce y Vol. II, and Ashley, English Eco-
nomic History, Vol. I, Part II.

The great Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Leslie
Stephen and Sidney Lee (63 vols., 1885-1900), is of constant use to the
historical student.

For the travels and expanding commerce of this period, see Bibliog-
raphy at the close of Chapter XXXIII, below.

For the sources of this period, see above, p. 155. To the list there
given may be added :

Camden (1551-1623), Annales rerum A 7iglicarum regnante Eliza-
betha. Translation in Kennet, Collection of English History, Vol. II.

Strype (1643-1737), Ecclesiastical Memorials, 6 vols. ; Annals of the
Reformation, 7 vols., Oxford edition. Strype also published lives of
Cranmer, Whitgift, and Parker. He is more voluminous than critical
and must be used with care.

Burnet (see below, p. 253), History of the Reformation, edited by
Pocock, 7 vols. Valuable for copious extracts from sources.

Fox (i 516-1 587), Book of Martyrs : The Acts and Monuments of the
Church. Innumerable editions since the first in 1563. Fox was too
partisan to be critical. He used rumors and hearsay evidence, willfully
exaggerated, and included many persons executed for secular offenses.

The statutes and state papers (see above, p. 155) are also indispen-
sable for every phase of the Elizabethan period.

Prothero, Select Statutes and Other Constitutional Documents Illus-
trative of the Reigns of Elizabeth and fames I, 1894. This handy
volume contains important statutes of the reign and materials on parlia-
mentary, judicial, military, and ecclesiastical affairs.

The student should be aware of the existence of great collections of
miscellaneous material, like the publications of the Camden Society,
of the Parker Society, of the Early English Text Society, etc., also of
•Original Letters Illustrative of English History, edited by Ellis. See
exhaustive bibliography in Cambridge Modern History, Vol. HI,
pp. 810 sqq.

Sources.

Prothero’s

Select

Statutes.

CHAPTER XXIX

292. Activity
of the Jesuits
in Germany
before the
Thirty Years’
War.

THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR

I. The Opening of the Thirty Years’ War

The suspicions entertained by the Protestants in
regard to the Jesuits at the time of the organization of
the Protestant Union are brought out in a letter written
by the elector of Saxony, a Lutheran, to his representa-
tive at the diet in 1608.

How violently the restless Jesuits and their followers are
exerting themselves to undo, by their absurd interpretations
and preposterous attacks, the precious and solemnly rati-
fied Religious Peace [of Augsburg] which was drawn up
long years ago for many weighty reasons by his Roman
Imperial Majesty and all the estates of the empire, is but
too clear. Nay, they would completely abolish it and then
do away altogether with our true Christian religion, in
which we were born and brought up and in which we would
live and die. All this is sufficiently proved by the innu-
merable, violent, and poisonous books which they issue
throughout the Roman Empire, directed against the said
Religious Peace and its clear provisions, declaring it to
be no more than ad interwi, — a temporary concession of
toleration, designed to last only until the conclusion of the
Council of Trent ; even going so far as to imply that his
Imperial Majesty of happy memory had no authority to
arrange the peace among the estates of the empire without
the consent of the pope. Moreover they stir up harsh
persecutions hitherto unheard of in the Holy Roman
Empire, all with a view to accomplishing their end, —
namely, to promote discord among the estates of the Holy

200

The Thirty Years' War

201

Roman Empire, to rouse the several governments against
their subjects and vice versa, and to check and suppress our
true Christian religion and bring it back into the condition
and contempt in which it was before the establishment of
the religious and secular peace.

We know, however, that his Roman Imperial Majesty
[Rudolf II] and the peace-loving Catholic estates, with
their Christian and loyal German feelings, have no pleasure
in the dangerous practices of the Jesuits and their adherents.
. . . Moreover, since the nature and character of the
Jesuits and their followers are as notorious among Catholics
as among Protestants, and since what they have been up to
in Sweden, Poland, France, the Netherlands, and, recently,
in Italy, is well known, they should be estimated accord-
ingly and precautions taken against their dangerous plots.

An English historian of the time, Rushworth, thus
describes the opening of the Thirty Years’ War. James
I of England was deeply interested in i6i8 in negotiating
a marriage between his son and heir, Charles, and a
Spanish princess.

Whilst Spain and England were thus closing, the fire
brake out in Germany between the states and princes
Protestant and the house of Austria. These commotions
involved and drew along the affairs of most Christian
princes, especially of the two potent kings now in treaty.
The Catholic cause and the lot of the house of Austria
engaged the king of Spain, who was the strongest branch
of that stock. King James must needs be drawn in, both
by common and particular interest : the religion which he
professed and the state of his son-in-law, the elector pala-
tine, who became the principal part of those wars and the
most unfortunate. It was an high business to the whole
Christian world, and the issue of it had main dependence
upon the king of England, being the mightiest prince of
the Protestant profession. But this king’s proceedings were
wholly governed by the unhappy Spanish treaty.

293. An
English
view of the
opening of
the war.
(From Rush-
worth.)

202

Readings m European History

The

Bohemian

troubles.

The clouds gather thick in the German sky ; jealousies
and discontents arise between the Catholics and the Evan-
gelics, or Lutherans, of the Confession of Augsburg. Both
parties draw into confederacies and hold assemblies ; the
one seeking by the advantage of power to encroach and
get ground, the other to stand their ground and hold their
own. The potency of the house of Austria, a house devoted
to the persecution of the reformed religion, became formi-
dable. The old emperor Mathias declared his cousin ger-
man, the archduke Ferdinand, to be his adopted son and
successor, and caused him to be chosen and crowned king
of Bohemia and Hungary, yet reserving to himself the sole
exercise of kingly power during his life.

The Jesuits triumphed in their hopes of King Ferdinand.
The pope exhorted the Catholics to keep a day of jubilee
and to implore aid of God for the Church’s high occasions.
To answer this festival the elector of Saxony called to mind
that it was then the hundredth year complete since Martin
Luther opposed the papal indulgences, which was the first
beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Whereupon he
ordained a solemn feast of three days for thanksgiving
and for prayer to God to maintain in peace the purity of
the Word and the right administration of the sacraments.
The professors of the universities of Lipsick and Wittemberg,
the imperial towns of Franckford, Worms, and Noremburg,
— yea, the Calvinists also, — observed the same days of jubi-
lee against the Romish Church, and much gold and silver
was cast abroad in memory of Luther, whom they called
blessed. ...

The Bohemian troubles took their first rise from the
breach of the edict of peace concerning religion and the
accord made by the emperor Rudolf whereby the Protes-
tants retained the free exercise of their religion, enjoyed
their temples, colleges, tithes, patronages, places of burial,
and the like, and had liberty to build new temples and
power to choose defenders to secure these rights and to
regulate what should be the service in their churches.
Now the stop of building certain churches on lands within

The Thirty Years' War

203

the lordships of the Catholic clergy (in which the Evangel-
ics conceived a right to build) was the special grievance
and cause of breach. w-

On the 23d of May the chief of the Evangelics went
armed into the castle of Prague, entered the council cham-
ber, and opened their grievances ; but, enraged by opposi-
tion, they threw Slabata, the chief justice, and Smesansius,
one of the council, and Eabricius, the secretary, from an
high window into the castle ditch ; others of the council,
temporizing in this tumult and seeming to accord with their
demands, were peacefully conducted to their own houses.
Hereupon the assembly took advice to settle the towns and
castle of Prague with new guards ; likewise to appease the
people and take the oath of fidelity. They chose directors,
governors, councilors provincial to govern affairs of state,
and to consult of raising forces against the enemies of God
and the king and the edicts of his Imperial Majesty. They
banished the Jesuits throughout all Bohemia.

After the expulsion of the “ Winter King ” from
Bohemia, his English wife wrote to her father, James I,
as follows :

Sire :

I do not wish to importune your Majesty with a very
long letter. The Baron de Dona will not fail to inform
your Majesty of the misfortune that has befallen us and
which has compelled us to leave Prague, and to come to
this place, where God knows how long we shall remain. I
therefore most humbly entreat your Majesty to protect the
king and myself by sending us succor; otherwise we shall
be brought to utter ruin. It is your Majesty alone, next to
Almighty God, from whom we expect assistance. I most
humbly thank your Majesty for the favorable declaration
you have been pleased to make respecting the preservation
of the Palatinate. I most humbly entreat you to do the
same for us here and to send us sufficient succor to defend
ourselves against our enemies ; otherwise I do not know

The Protes-
tants organ-
ize a revo-
lution in
Prague.

294. A
letter from
Elizabeth,
queen of
Bohemia, to
her father,
James I of
England.

204

Readings in European History

what shall become of us. I therefore again entreat your
Majesty to have compassion on us, and not to abandon the
king at this hour, when he is in such great need. As to
myself, I am resolved not to leave him ; for if he should
perish, I will perish also with him. But whatever may
happen, never, never shall I be other than, sire.

Your Majesty’s most humble and obedient daughter
and servant, Elizabeth.

Breslau, November 23/13, 1620.

The following are supposed to be the reflections of a
good Catholic upon the reckless experiment of the Cal-
vinistic B'rederick, the “Winter King” of Bohemia, who
was not only unable to hold his new crown, but lost his
old possessions, the Rhenish palatinate.

295. A
Catholic
song about
the poor
“ Winter
King.”

Oh, shame on you, poor Winter King !
What ’s this that you have done ?

Is ’t not a very naughty thing
To snatch the kaiser’s crown ?

Now you will have to stay away
Alike from Rhine and Prague,

And more than that — shame and dismay
Your days and nights will plague.

Dear Fritz, good fellow, oh, come now,
Give up, give up the crown !

To hell, to meet your just reward.

Full soon you will go down.

So every one who flies too high
Is sure to go amiss ;

Presumption, aiming at the sky.

Must pay in hell’s abyss.

Alas ! dear Fritz, my gay young blood,
I think it well may be
A seasoned switch betimes had spared
This monstrous infamy.

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205

Right well you knew, and all the world,
Right well they know this thing.

That Ferdinand alone can be
Bohemia’s lawful king.

So come, dear Fritz, rouse up and go
To Ferdinand, your king.

And beg him graciously to show
Full pardon for your sin.

Give to your king what is his own.

To God what is his due.

So shall you for your sin atone
And act the good prince, too.

II. The Intervention of Gustavus Adolphus

The boundless cruelty and insolence of Wallenstein
— who had forced the emperor to make him duke of
Mechlenburg after outlawing the legitimate dukes —
aroused the suspicion and anger of the Catholic princes
as well as of the Protestant. At a meeting of the elect-
ors, summoned at Regensburg in the summer of 1630,
all joined in demanding from the reluctant emperor the
immediate dismissal of Wallenstein, just as Gustavus
Adolphus had arrived on German soil.

The electors, in a dignified and reasonable address,
expressed their firm conviction that the whole blame for
the misery, disgrace, and infamy, the cruel and unneces-
sary military exactions, which were daily increasing, rested
wdth the new duke in Mechlenburg, who, as commander of
the imperial forces, had been invested, without the consent
of the estates, with such powers as no one before him had
ever exercised. The soldiery, now become unspeakably
numerous, served no other purpose than to lay waste the
common fatherland. Moreover war has been waged upon

296. The
electors de-
mand the
dismissal
of Wallen-
stein (1630).
(From a
contempo-
raneous
history.)

206

Readings in European History

Complaints
of the duke of
Pomerania.

those against whom it had never been declared. Contri-
butions which, according to the decrees of the diet, no one
had the right to demand without the consent of the assem-
bled estates, were levied at the duke’s own will and pleas-
ure and wrung from the people in barbarous ways. It was
shown that the electorate of Brandenburg alone in the last
few years had furnished twenty million gulden, to say
nothing of the terrible disturbances and destruction that
war always brings with it. They complained, moreover,
most bitterly of the excessive pomp and magnificence main-
tained by the duke and his officers, in the way of clothing,
gold and silver utensils, and costly horses.

[Among the complaints from other princes and estates
of the realm, the following, presented to the emperor by an
ambassador from the duke of Pomerania, is especially note-
worthy.] The duke of Pomerania doubts not that your
Imperial Majesty has in remembrance how that he has at
divers times protested against the unheard-of and unspeak-
able hardships and extortions which have now for almost
three years been practiced upon him and his subjects by
the troops quartered in the land, and which still continue
unabated ; whereof he once more most earnestly complains,
and humbly begs for relief. The burden has now become
so great that he can bear it no longer.

According to the decisions and decrees of the imperial
diet, he is under no obligation to support an army by
himself and bear unaided a burden that should be divided
among all the members of the empire. Nevertheless, for
almost three years past, he has had to maintain within
his dukedom and other territories over a hundred compa-
nies of your Imperial Majesty’s army, besides sending sup-
plies to outside points, and having the soldiery continually
marching about the country. The outlay in the principal-
ity of Stettin alone amounts to fully ten million gulden ;
this can be verified at any time.

Worst of all are the vexatious means used in collecting
these monthly contributions from our officials and subjects.
A new and unheard-of 7nodus extorque7idi\iz.'s> been invented,

The Thirty Years' War

207

such as was never before practiced by honest soldiers quar-
tered in a friendly land ; and the exactions are carried out
with such rigorous excess under the officers in charge that
the miserable victims can scarce keep shirts on their backs.
And what insolent excesses and willful interference with
church services, despoiling of churches, violation of graves
of the dead, infringements of every sort of our sovereignty
and authority, disarming of our subjects and curtailing of
our revenue as ruler ! This last has actually gone so far
that it is impossible for us, from all the length and breadth
of our land, to maintain a table befitting our princely rank;
whereas every captain, out of his own district alone, lives
in more than princely style and sends away large sums
besides. Toward the poor people they are barbarous and
tyrannical beyond words, beating, burning, and plundering,
and depriving them of the very necessities of existence, till
they are in danger of soul as well as body, for they are
driven to such unnatural and inhuman food as buds of
trees and grass, and even to the flesh of their own children
and of dead bodies.

Gustavus Adolphus before sailing for Germany bade
a touching farewell to the representatives of his people
assembled at Stockholm (May, 1630).

I call on the all-powerful God to witness, by whose prov-
idence we are here assembled, that it is not by my own
wish, or from any love of war, that I undertake this cam-
paign. On the contrary, I have been now for several years
goaded into it by the imperial party, not only through the
reception accorded to our emissary to Liibeck, but also
by the action of their general in aiding with his army
our enemies, the Poles, to our great detriment. We have
been urged, moreover, by our harassed brother-in-law [the
elector of Brandenburg] to undertake this war, the chief
object of which is to free our oppressed brothers in the
faith from the clutches of the pope, which, God helping us,
we hope to do.

297. Gus-
tavus
Adolphus’
farewell to
the Swedish
estates
(May, 1630).

2o8 Readings in European History

But even as the pitcher that goes daily to the well must
sometime break, so will it be with me ; for though, for
the welfare of the Swedish kingdom, I have already gone
through many dangers and seen much shedding of blood,
and have come through it all so far — thanks to God’s gra-
cious protection — without bodily harm, yet the time will
come when all is over for me and I must say farewell to
life. Therefore I have desired before my departure to see
you all, from far and near, subjects and estates of Sweden,
gathered about me, that we may together commend our-
selves and each other, in body, soul, and estate, to our all-
gracious God, in the hope that it may be his will, after this
weary and troublous life, to bring us again together in the
heavenly and everlasting life that he has prepared for us.

Especially do I commend you, counselors of the king-
dom, to the all-powerful God, desiring that you may never
fail in good counsel, that you may uphold your office and
rank to the honor of God, that his holy word may remain
undefiled to ourselves and our descendants in the father-
land, so that peace and unity may blossom and flourish,
and discontent, discord, and dissension be unknown, and
that your counsels may ever bring safety, quiet, and peace
to the fatherland. Finally, may you strive to bring up your
children to respect the laws and in every way to serve and
strengthen the government of the kingdom. This is the
wish of my whole heart.

You of the knight’s estate I likewise ardently commend
to the Most High God, with the hope that you may stand
by your traditions, and that you and your descendants
may regain for yourselves and spread abroad through the
whole world the undying renown of the Goths, our fore-
fathers, whose once famous name is now, alas, long for-
gotten — yea, well-nigh despised — by foreigners, but whose
spirit has already, during my reign, shone forth again in
your manly behavior, your unfailing courage, your sacri-
fices of blood and life. May our descendants once more
glory in the might Of their forefathers, who subjugated
various kingdoms and ruled through hundreds of years

The Thirty Years War

209

to the welfare of the fatherland. May their name again
win undying fame and be feared by kings and princes, and
may you of the noble class gain world-wide renown. This
do I hereby wish you.

You of the priestly class I would, in parting, remind of
your duty to admonish your hearers (whose hearts are
in your keeping) to be faithful and true to their rulers and
perform their duty obediently and cheerfully. Strengthen
your flocks, that they may live together in peace and con-
cord and not be led astray by the counsels of evil men.
But it is not enough that you instruct them in these mat-
ters — it is my wish that you should walk before them in
blameless rectitude, offending none, so that not only by
your teaching and preaching, but by your example as well,
they may become a useful and peaceful people.

For you, burghers, I wish that your little cottages may
grow into big stone houses, your little boats into great
ships ; and that the oil in your cruses may never fail. This,
for you, is my parting wish.

For the rest, I wish for you all that your fields may wax
green and bring forth fruit a hundredfold ; that your chests
may overflow, and your comfort and well-being grow and
increase, so that your duty may be done with joy and not
in sighing. Above all, do I commend you, each and every
one, in soul and body, to God Almighty.

Upon his arrival in Germany, Gustavus was received
with natural suspicion by the Protestant princes of
northern Germany, who were not unnaturally reluctant
to ally themselves with a powerful foreign monarch
against the emperor. The Swedish king thus expostu-
lated with the cautious representative of his brother-in-
law, the elector of Brandenburg ;

I have received your explanation of the grounds on
which my honored brother-in-law seeks to dissuade me from
this war. I confess I should have expected a different sort

The German
princes
reluctant to
join

Gustavus.

210

Readings in European History

298. Gus- of embassy, since God has brought me thus far, and since

tavus Adol- j come into this land for no other purpose than to

phus* reply . . ^ ^ .

totheambas- free it from the thieves and robbers who have so plagued it,

sadorfrom and, first and foremost, to help his Excellency out of his
Does his Excellency then not know that the
emperor and his followers do not mean to rest till the
evangelical religion is wholly rooted out of the empire, and
that his Excellency has nothing else to expect than being
forced either to deny his religion or to leave his country ?
Does he think by prayers and beseechings and such like
means to obtain something different ?

Eor God’s sake, bethink yourselves and take counsel
like men! I cannot go back — jacta est alea : transivhnus
Rubico7iem. I seek not my own advantage in this war, nor
any gain save the security of my kingdom ; I can look for
nothing but expense, hard work, trouble, and danger to
life and limb. I have found reason enough for my coming
in that Prussia has twice sent aid to my enemies and
attempted to overthrow me ; thereafter they tried to seize
the east port, which made it plain enough what designs
they had against me. Even so has his Excellency, the
elector, like reasons, and the time has come for him to open
his eyes and face the situation, instead of acting as the
representative — nay, rather servant — of the emperor in
his own land ; qui se fait brehis^ le loup le mange.

Now is his opportunity, since his territory is free of the
emperor’s troops, to garrison and defend his fortresses. If
he will not do this, let him give me a single stronghold, —
Custrin, for instance, — and I will defend it, and you can
persist in the indolence that your master loves. What other
course is there open ? For I tell you plainly that I will
know nor hear nothing of “ neutrality his Excellency
must be either friend or foe. When I reach his frontier
he must declare himself either hot or cold. The fight is
between God and the devil. If his Excellency is on God’s
side, let him stand by me ; if he holds rather with the
devil, then he must fight with me ; there is no third course,
— that is certain.

The Thirty Years' War 2 1 1

You must undertake to transmit this commission faith-
fully to his Excellency, for I have no one whom I can
spare to send to him. . . .

Gustavus lingered in northern Germany for some
months, until finally the Protestant princes were induced
to join him by the fall of Magdeburg and the fearful
massacre of its inhabitants by the imperial troops under
Pappenheim and Tilly. This event is thus described by
a writer of the period :

So then General Pappenheim collected a number of his
people on the ramparts by the New Town, and brought
them from there into the streets of the city. Von Falcken-
berg ^ was shot, and fires were kindled in different quarters ;
then indeed it was all over with the city, and further resist-
ance was useless. Nevertheless some of the soldiers and
citizens did try to make a stand here and there, but the
imperial troops kept bringing on more and more forces
— cavalry, too — to help them, and finally they got the
Krockenthor open and let in the whole imperial army and
the forces of the Catholic League, — Hungarians, Croats,
Poles, Walloons, Italians, Spaniards, French, North and
South Germans.

Thus it came about that the city and all its inhabitants
fell into the hands of the enemy, whose violence and cruelty
were due in part to their common hatred of the adherents
of the Augsburg Confession, and in part to their being im-
bittered by the chain shot which had been fired at them and
by the derision and insults that the Magdeburgers had
heaped upon them from the ramparts.

Then was there naught but beating and burning, plunder-
ing, torture, and murder. Most especially was every one of
the enemy bent on securing much booty. When a maraud-
ing party entered a house, if its master had anything to

1 The ambassador of Gustavus Adolphus, who had brought some
aid to the beleaguered city.

299. The
destruction
of Magde-
burg (May,
1631).

212

Readings in Europeaji History

give he might thereby purchase respite and protection for
himself and his family till the next man, who also wanted
something, should come along. It was only when every-
thing had been brought forth and there was nothing left to
give that the real trouble commenced.^. Then, what with
blows and threats of shooting, stabbing, and hanging, the
poor people were so terrified that if they had had anything
left they would have brought it forth if it had been buried
in the earth or hidden away in a thousand castles. In this
frenzied rage, the great and splendid city that had stood
like a fair princess in the land was now, in its hour of direst
need and unutterable distress and woe, given over to the
flames, and thousands of innocent men, women, and chil-
dren, in the midst of a horrible din of heartrending shrieks
and cries, were tortured and put to death in so cruel and
shameful a manner that no words would suffice to describe,
nor no tears to bewail it. . . .

Thus in a single day this noble and famous city, the
pride of the whole country, went up in fire and smoke ; and
the remnant of its citizens, with their wives and children,
were taken prisoners and driven away by the enemy with a
noise of weeping and wailing that could be heard from afar,
while the cinders and ashes from the town were carried
by the wind to Wanzleben, Egeln, and still more distant
places. ...

In addition to all this, quantities of sumptuous and irre-
placeable house furnishings and movable property of all
kinds, such as books, manuscripts, paintings, memorials
of all sorts, . . . which money could not buy, were either
burned or carried away by the soldiers as booty. The most
magnificent garments, hangings, silk stuffs, gold and sil-
ver lace, linen of all sorts, and other household goods were
bought by the army sutlers for a mere song and peddled
about by the cart load all through the archbishopric of
Magdeburg and in Anhalt and Brunswick. Gold chains
and rings, jewels, and every kind of gold and silver utensils
were to be bought from the common soldiers for a tenth of
their real value. . . .

The Thirty Years’ War

213

III. The Treaty of Westphalia (1648)

The treaties of Westphalia, the one signed at Munster
and the other at Osnabriick, are voluminous, and would
fill more than a hundred pages of this volume if printed
in full. The.y contain but six or seven really memorable
articles,^ and are for the most part filled with multitudi-
nous provisions regarding the church lands over which
Catholics and Protestants had so long been contending,
and minor territorial changes among the lesser German
states. The treaty of Osnabriick opens as follows^;

In the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity. To all whom
these prese?its 7nay concern., be it known :

When the divisions and disorders which began several
years ago in the Roman Empire had grown to a point
where not only all Germany but some of the neighboring
kingdoms as well, especially Sweden and France, found
themselves so involved that a long and bitter war resulted,
in the first instance between the most serene and powerful
prince and lord, Ferdinand II, emperor elect of the Romans,
always august, king of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, Dal-
matia, etc., archduke of Austria, duke of Burgundy, Bra-
bant, etc., etc., etc., ... of glorious memory, his allies and
adherents, on the one part, and the most serene and power-
ful prince and lord, Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, of
the Goths and Vandals, grand prince of Finland, duke of
Esthonia, etc., also of glorious memory, together with the
kingdom of Sweden, its allies and adherents, on the other
part ; later, after the decease of these aforementioned, be-
tween the most serene and powerful lord, Ferdinand III,
emperor elect of the Romans, always august, king of Ger-
many, etc., etc., and the most serene and very powerful
princess and lady, Christina, queen of Sweden, of the Goths

1 For these see History of Western Europe, p. 473 (Vol. II, p. 121).

2 The treaty of Munster opens with essentially the same words.

300. Open-
ing of the
treaty of
Osnabriick
(October 24,
1648).

214

Readings in European History

301. The
pope declares
a great part
of the
treaties of
Westphalia
null and void.

and Vandals, etc.; from which war resulted a great effusion
of Christian blood and the desolation of divers provinces,
until at last, through the movings of the Divine Goodness,
it came about that both parties began to turn their thoughts
toward the means of reestablishing peace, and by a mutual
agreement made at Hamburg, December 25 (New Style),
or the 15th (Old Style), of the year 1641, between the
parties, the date July ii (New Style) or i (Old Style) was
fixed for the meeting of the plenipotentiaries at Osnabriick
and at Munster in Westphalia. In accordance with this,
the ambassadors plenipotentiary duly appointed by both
parties appeared at the said time and places named, to
wit . . . [here follow the names of the ambassadors and
their numerous titles].

After invoking the aid of God and exchanging their
credentials, copies of which are inserted word for word in
the present treaty, they arranged and agreed upon the
articles of peace and amity which follow, to the glory of
God and for the welfare of the Christian commonwealth ;
the electors, princes, and estates of the Holy Roman
Empire being present and approving.

As head of the Church, Pope Innocent X promptly
declared null and void all the articles in the treaties of
Westphalia relating to religious matters.

Consumed by zeal for the house of the Lord, we are
especially concerned with the endeavor everywhere to main-
tain the integrity of the orthodox faith and the authority
of the Catholic Church, so that the ecclesiastical rights of
which we have been appointed guardian by our Saviour shall
not in any way be impaired by those who seek their own
interest rather than God’s, and that we may not be accused
of negligence when we shall render account t6 the Sovereign
Judge. Accordingly it is not without deep pain that we
have learned that by several articles in the peace concluded
at Osnabriick, August 6,^ 1648, between our very dear son

1 This is not the date commonly given for the concluding of the treaty.

The Thirty Years' War

215

in Christ, Ferdinand, king of the Romans and emperor
elect, his allies and adherents, on the one hand, and the
Swedes, with their allies and adherents, on the other, as
well as in that peace which was likewise concluded at
Munster in Westphalia on the twenty-fourth day of October
of this same year 1648, between the same Ferdinand, king
of the Romans, etc., and our very dear son in Jesus Christ,
Louis, the very Christian king of the French, his allies
and adherents, great prejudice has been done to the Cath-
olic religion, the divine service, the Roman apostolic see,
the ecclesiastical order, their jurisdictions, authority, im-
munities, liberties, exemptions, privileges, possessions, and
rights ; since by various articles in one of these treaties of
peace the ecclesiastical possessions which the heretics form-
erly seized are abandoned to them and to their successors,
and the heretics, called those of the Augsburg Confession,
are permitted the free exercise of their heresy in various
districts. They are promised places in which they may
build temples for their worship and are admitted with the
Catholics to public offices and positions. . . .

The number seven of the electors of the empire, formerly
ratified by the apostolic authority, is increased without
our consent or that of the said see, and an eighth elector-
ate has been erected in favor of Charles Louis, count of the
Rhenish palatinate, a heretic. Many other things have
been done too shameful to enumerate and very prejudicial
to the orthodox religion and the Roman see. . . .

[Accordingly] we assert and declare by these presents
that all the said articles in one or both of the said treaties
which in any way impair or prejudice in the slightest degree,
or that can be said, alleged, understood, or imagined to be
able in any way to injure or to have injured the Catholic
religion, divine worship, the salvation of souls, the said
Roman apostolic see, the inferior churches, the ecclesiasti-
cal order or estate, their persons, affairs, possessions, juris-
dictions, authorities, immunities, liberties, privileges, pre-
rogatives, and rights whatsoever, — all such provisions
have been, and are of right, and shall perpetually be, null

2i6

Readings m European History

A. Refer-
ences.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

and void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, condemned, rejected,
frivolous, without force or effect, and no one is to observe
them, even when they be ratified by oath. . . .

Given at Rome in Santa Maria Maggiore, under seal of
the fisherman’s ring, November 26th of the year 1648, and
of our pontificate the fifth.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

General Account of the 30 Years’ War : Schwill, Modern Europe,
pp. 141-160.

Antecedents of the War : Wakeman, European History, ipgS-iyip,
Chapter III, pp. 39-52 ; HausSER, Period of the Reformation, pp. 402-
414; Henderson, Short History of Germany, Vol. I, pp. 422-441;
Dyer and Hassall, History of Modern Europe, Vol. Ill, pp. 1 52-157
and 184-193.

Bohemian and Danish Periods : Hausser, pp. 41 5-438 ; Wakeman,
pp. 53-77; Henderson, Vol. II, pp. 441-462; Dyer and Hassall,
Vol. Ill, pp. 195-208 and 253-262.

Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein: Wakeman, pp. 78-104;
Henderson, Vol. II, pp. 462-483; Dyer and Hassall, Vol. HI,
pp. 264-296; Hausser, pp. 438-443, 458-482, and 501-513.

Intervention of France: Wakeman, pp. 105-128; Dyer and Has-
sall, Vol. Ill, pp. 297-31 1 ; Hausser, pp. 514-536.

Peace of Westphalia : Hausser, pp. 537-559 ; Dyer and Hassall,
Vol. Ill, pp. 335-352.

Richelieu: Wakeman, pp. 132-153.

Gardiner, S. R., The Thirty Years' War. A good short account in
the Epoch Series.

Gindely, History of the Thirty Years' War, 2 vols. Translation of
a popular treatment by a well-known scholar in this field.

Perkins, J. B., France under Richelieti and Mazarin. Vol. I relates
to Richelieu and the Thirty Years’ War. The same historian has
written Richelieu (1900) for the Heroes of the Nations Series.

Fletcher, C. R. L., Gtistavus Adolphus and the SUniggle of Protes-
tantism for Existence, 1890 (Heroes of the Nations). Best account in
English.

Charveriat, Histoire de la guerre de trente ans, 2 vols., 1878. A
scholarly account of the whole subject, with references to sources.

The Thirty Years' War

217

Droysen, G., Das Zeitalter des Dreissigjdhrigen Krieges, 1888 (in the
Oncken Series). An elaborate account of the conditions in Germany
during the sixty years preceding the opening of the war.

Ritter, Moritz, Detitsche Geschichte iin Zeitalter der Gegenrefornia-
tion und des Dreissigjdhrigen Krieges, iggg-1648. Two volumes only
of this great work (1889, 1895) have appeared, bringing down the tale
to 1618.

Winter, G., Geschichte des Dreissigjdhrigen Krieges, 1893 (Oncken
Series). No references to sources.

Avenel, Georges d’, Richelieu et la Monarchie absolue, 4 vols., 1884-
1890. The best work on the subject.

Droysen, G., Gustav Adolf, 2 vols., 1869-1870.

Ranke, Geschichte Wallensteijis, 1869.

Gindely, Geschichte des Dreissigjdhrigen Krieges, 4 vols., 1869-
1880 ; breaks off in the year 1623. Waldstein, i62g-i6go (2 vols., 1886);
and numerous monographs by the same author.

During the Thirty Years’ War something like our modern periodical
publications began to make their appearance. In Germany Abelinus in
his Theatrum Europaeum furnished at intervals an account of the
events of the war. This collection, beautifully illustrated, w’hich took
final shape in 1679, is one of the chief sources of our knowledge. In
London The Swedish Intelligencer was issued at intervals between 1632
and 1637 for the purpose of giving “ the truest and choysest ” news
about Gustavus Adolphus and the progress of the war, compiled from
letters received from Germany. In France a regular magazine, the
Mercure de France, had been established just before the opening of the
W'ar. This continued to be issued for two centuries. Unfortunately all
three of these publications are rarely to be found except in the very
largest libraries.

Grimmelshausen, Hans Jacob (i62o?-i676), Der Abenteurliche
Siniplicissimus. This and other romances, written by one who well
knew the horrors of the war, may be regarded as suggestive sources of
information for the general conditions in Germany. The Siniplicissmius
is easily to be had in several excellent German editions.

Periodical

literature.

CHAPTER XXX

302. James
I’s dislike
for Presby-
terians.

Policy of
Knox and
the Scotch
Presby-
terians.

STRUGGLE IN ENGLAND FOR CONSTITUTIONAL
GOVERNMENT

I. Difference of Opinion between James I and
THE Commons

At a conference held in 1604, James had to listen to
a speech by a Puritan divine which recalled to him his
troubles with presbyteries in Scotland.

At which speech his Majesty was somewhat stirred, yet,
which is admirable in him, without passion or show thereof ;
thinking that they aimed at a Scottish presbytery which,
saith he, as well agreeth with a monarchy as God and the
devil. “Then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet
and at their pleasure censure me and my council and all
our proceedings. Then Will shall stand up and say it must
be thus ; then Dick shall reply and say, ‘ Nay, marry, but
we will have it thus.’ . . .

“ I will tell you a tale. After that the religion restored
by King Edward the Sixth was soon overthrown by the
succession of Queen Mary here in England, we in Scotland
felt the effect of it. Whereupon Master Knox writes to the
queen regent (of whom, without flattery, I may say that
she was a virtuous and moderate lady), telling her that she
was supreme head of the Church, and charged her, as she
would answer it before God’s tribunal, to take care of Christ,
his Evangel, and of suppressing the popish prelates, who
withstood the same. But how long, trow ye, did this con-
tinue ? Even so long, till by her authority, the popish bish-
ops were repressed. He [Knox] himself and his adherents

1 The mother of Mary, Queen of Scots.

218

Struggle for Constitutional Government 2 1 9

were brought in and well settled, and by these means made
strong enough to undertake the matters of reformation
themselves. Then, lo, they began to make small account
of her supremacy, nor would longer rest upon her author-
ity, but took the cause into their own hand; according to
that more light wherewith they were illuminated, made a
further reformation of religion. How they used that poor
lady, my mother, is not unknown, and with grief I may
remember it ; who, because she had not been otherwise
instructed, did desire only a private chapel wherein to
serve God, after her manner, with some few selected per-
sons ; but her supremacy was not sufficient to obtain it at
their hands. And how they dealt with me in my minority
you all know ; it was not done secretly, and though I
would, I cannot conceal it. . . . But if once you [my lords
the bishops] were out, and they in place, I know what
would become of my supremacy. No bishop, no king, as
before I said.”

James I gave an interesting summary of his absolutist
theory of kings and their rights in his speeches before
Parliament in 1609.

303. James
I proclaims
in Parlia-
ment the
divine right
of kings
(1609).

The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth ;
for kings are not only God’s lieutenants upon earth, and sit
upon God’s throne, but even by God himself they are called
gods. There be three principal similitudes that illustrate
the state of monarchy : one taken out of the word of God ;
and the two other out of the grounds of policy and philos-
ophy. In the Scriptures kings are called gods, and so their
power after a certain relation compared to the divine power.
Kings are also compared to fathers of families ; for a king
is truly parens patriae^ the politic father of his people. And
lastly, kings are compared to the head of this microcosm
of the body of man.

Kings are justly called gods, for that they exercise a
manner or resemblance of divine power upon earth ; for if
you will consider the attributes to God, you shall see how

220

Readings in European History

James tells
the commons
what they
should not do.

they agree in the person of a king. God hath power to
create or destroy, make or unmake at his pleasure, to give
life or send death, to judge all and to be judged nor account-
able to none, to raise low things and to make high things
low at his pleasure, and to God are both soul and body
due. And the like power have kings : they make and
unmake their subjects, they have power of raising and
casting down, of life and of death, judges over all their
subjects and in all causes and yet accountable to none but
God only. They have power to exalt low things and abase
high things, and make of their subjects, like men at the
chess, — a pawn to take a bishop or a knight, — and to cry
up or down any of their subjects, as they do their money.
And to the king is due both the affection of the soul and
the service of the body of his subjects. . . .

I would wish you to be careful to avoid three things in
the matter of grievances :

First, that you do not meddle with the main points of
government ; that is my craft : tracteiit fahrilia fabric — to
meddle with that were to lessen me. I am now an old king;
for six and thirty years have I governed in Scotland per-
sonally, and now have I accomplished my apprenticeship
of seven years here ; and seven years is a great time for a
king’s experience in government ; therefore there should
not be too many Phormios to teach Hannibal : I must not
be taught my office.

Secondly, I would not have you meddle with such ancient
rights of mine as I have received from my predecessors,
possessing them, more majormn ; such things I would be
sorry should be accounted for grievances. All novelties
are dangerous as well in a politic as in a natural body, and
therefore I would be loath to be quarreled in my ancient
rights and possessions ; for that were to judge me unworthy
of that which my predecessors had and left me.

And, lastly, I pray you beware to exhibit for grievance
anything that is established by settled law, and whereunto
(as you have already had a proof) you know I will never

Struggle for Constitutional Government 221

give a plausible answer ; for it is an undutiful part in sub-
jects to press their king, wherein they know beforehand he
will refuse themd

II. The Petition of Right (1628)

Charles I was, from the start, on even worse terms
with Parliament than his father had been. The com-
mons had, in addition to the old grievances, serious
complaints to make in regard to the character and pol-
icy of Charles’ chief minister, Buckingham. Two Parlia-
ments were dissolved by the king in anger, and he raised
a great storm of opposition by forced loans, arbitrary
imprisonment, and other tyrannical acts. When, how-
ever, his third Parliament drew up the famous Petition
of Right, a sort of second Magna Charta, he was forced
to approve it, because he had to have money to carry on
the war with France.

To the king's Most Excellent Majesty :

We humhly show unto our sovereign lord the king, the
lords spiritual and temporal, and commons in Parliament
assembled, that whereas it is declared and enacted by a
statute made in the time of the reign of King Edward I,
commonly called Statutum de Tallagio 7ion Coficede?idof
that no tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the king or
his heirs in this realm without the good will and assent of
the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses,
and other the freemen of the commonalty of this realm ;

1 Yet James well knew the difference between an absolute king and
a tyrant, as he makes clear in his instructions to his son ( Works of
James /, p. 155) :

Consider first the true difference between a lawful good king and an usurp-
ing tyrant. . . . The one acknowledgeth himself ordained for his people, having
received from God a burden of government, whereof he must be countable ; the
other thinketh his people ordained for him, a prey to his passions and inordinate
appetites.

304. The
Petition of
Right (1628).
(Extracts.)

222 Readings in Etiropean History

and by authority of Parliament holden in the five-and-
twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III, it is
declared and enacted, that from thenceforth no person
should be compelled to make any loans to the king against
his -will, because such loans were against reason and the
franchise of the land ; and by other laws of this realm it is
provided, that none should be charged by any charge or
imposition called a benevolence, nor by any such like
charge ; by which statutes before mentioned, and other the
good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects have
inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled
to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge
not set by common consent in Parliament :

II. Yet nevertheless of late divers commissions, directed
to sundry commissioners in several counties with instruc-
tions, have issued ; by means whereof your people have
been in divers places assembled and required to lend cer-
tain sums of money unto your Majesty, and many of them
upon their refusal so to do . . . have been constrained to
make appearance before your privy council and in other
places, and others of them have been therefore impris-
oned, confined, and sundry other ways molested and dis-
quieted. . . .

III. And whereas also, by the statute called “The Great
Charter of the liberties of England,” it is declared and
enacted, that no freeman may be taken or imprisoned or
be disseized of his freehold or liberties, or his free cus-
toms, or be outlawed or exiled, or in any manner destroyed
but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of
the land. . . .

V. Nevertheless, against the tenor of the said statutes,
and other the good laws and statutes of your realm, to that
end provided, divers of your subjects have of late been
imprisoned without any cause showed ; . . . and whereas
of late great companies of soldiers and mariners have been
dispersed into divers counties of this realm, and the inhab-
itants, against their will, have been compelled to receive
them into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn,

Struggle for Constitutional Government 223

against the laws and customs of this realm, and to the great
grievance and vexation of the people. . . ,

X. They [Parliament] do therefore humbly pray your
most excellent Majesty that no man hereafter be compelled
to make or yield any loan, gift, benevolence, tax, or such
like charge, without common consent by act of Parliament;
and that none be called to make answer, or take such oath,
or to give attendance, or be confined, or otherwise molested
or disquieted concerning the same, or for refusal thereof ;
and that no freeman, in any such manner as is before men-
tioned, be imprisoned or detained; and that your Majesty
would be pleased to remove the said soldiers and mariners,
and that your people may not be so burdened in time to
come; and that the foresaid commissions for proceeding
by martial law may be revoked and annulled ; and that
hereafter no commissions of like nature may issue forth to
any person or persons whatsoever, to be executed as afore-
said, lest by color of them any of your Majesty’s subjects
be destroyed or put to death, contrary to the laws and
franchise of the land.

XI. All which they most humbly pray of your most
excellent Majesty, as their rights and liberties according to
the laws and statutes of this realm ; and that your Majesty
would also vouchsafe to declare, that the awards, doings,
and proceedings to the prejudice of your people, in any of
the premises, shall not be drawn hereafter into consequence
or example ; and that your Majesty would be also gra-
ciously pleased, for the further comfort and safety of your
people, to declare your royal will and pleasure, that in the
things aforesaid all your officers and ministers shall serve
you, according to the laws and statutes of this realm, as
they tender the honor of your Majesty and the prosperity
of this kingdom.

After a particularly tumultuous scene in the House
of Commons in March, 1629,^ Charles dissolved the

1 See a description of this famous session in Kendall, Source Book
of English History, pp. 219 sqq.

224

Readings m Europea^i History

Parliament and did not reassemble it again for eleven
years. He justified his conduct by a long defense.
After reciting the recent acts of those opposed to his
policy, he concluded :

305. Charles!
justifies
his policy in
dispensing
with an
unruly
Parliament
(1629).

And now that our people may discern that these provo-
cations of evil men (whose punishments we reserve to a due
time) have not changed our good intentions to our subjects,
we do here profess to maintain the true religion and doc-
trine established in the Church of England, without admit-
ting or conniving at any backsliding either to popery or
schism. We do also declare that we will maintain the
ancient and just rights and liberties of our subjects, with so
much constancy and justice that they shall have cause to
acknowledge that under our government and gracious pro-
tection they live in a more happy and free estate than any
subjects in the Christian world. Yet let no man hereby
take the boldness to abuse that liberty, turning it to licen-
tiousness ; nor misinterpret the petition by perverting it to
a lawless liberty, wantonly or frowardly, under that or any
other color, to resist lawful ^pd necessary authority. For
as we will maintain our subjects in their just liberties, so
we do and will expect that they yield as much submission
and duty to our royal prerogatives, and as ready obedience
to our authority and commandments, as hath been promised
to the greatest of our predecessors. . . .

And now, having laid down the truth and clearness of
our proceedings, all wise and discreet men may easily judge
of those rumors and jealous fears that are maliciously and
wickedly bruited abroad ; and may discern, by examination
of their own hearts, whether (in respect of the free passage
of the gospel, indifferent and equal administration of justice,
freedom from oppression, and the great peace and quietness
which every man enjoyeth under his own vine and fig tree)
the happiness of this nation can be paralleled by any of
our neighbor countries ; and, if not, then to acknowledge
their own blessedness, and for the same be thankful to God,
the author of all goodness.

Struggle for Constitutional Government 225

During the latter part of James’ reign and under
Charles I, emigration to Holland and New England
was promoted by the conditions in England.^ John
Winthrop, a gentleman of Suffolk who was to become
governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, gives the
following “ Reasons to be considered for justifying the
undertakers of the intended plantation in New England,”
(1629).

1. It will be a service to the Church of great consequence
to carry the gospel into those parts of the world, to help on
the coming of the fullness of the Gentiles, and to raise
a bulwark against the kingdom of Antichrist which the
Jesuits labor to rear up in those parts.

2. All other churches of Europe are brought to desola-
tion, and our sins, for which the Lord begins already to
frown upon us and to cut us short, do threaten evil times to
be coming upon us ; and who knows but that God hath pro-
vided this place to be a refuge for many whom he means
to save out of the general calamity, and seeing the Church
hath no place left to fly into but the wilderness, what better
work can there be than to go and provide tabernacles and
food for her against she comes thither ?

3. This land grows weary of her inhabitants, so as man,
who is the most precious of all creatures, is here more vile
and base than the earth we tread upon, and of less price
among us than an horse or a sheep ; masters are forced by
authority to entertain servants, parents to maintain their
own children ; all towns complain of the burden of their
poor, though we have taken up many unnecessary — yea,
unlawful — trades to maintain them, and we use the author-
ity of the law to hinder the increase of our people, as by
urging the statute against cottages and inmates, and thus
it is come to pass that children, servants, and neighbors,

^ See the remarkable account by William Bradford of the voyage
of the Mayflower in 1620, given in Colby, Sources of English History,
pp. 184 sqq.

306. Con-
ditions in
England in
1629 which
encouraged
emigration
to America.

226

Readings in European History

especially if they be poor, are counted the greatest burdens,
which, if things were right, would be the chiefest earthly
blessings,

4. The whole earth is the Lord’s garden, and he hath
given it to the sons of men with a general commission
(Gen. i. 28) to increase and multiply, and replenish the
earth and subdue it, which was again renewed to Noah ;
the end is double and natural, that man might enjoy the
fruits of the earth and God might have his due glory from
the creature. Why then should we stand here striving for
places of habitation, etc. (many men spending as much
labor and cost to recover or keep sometimes an acre or two
of land as would procure them many, and as good or better,
in another country), and in the meantime suffer a whole
continent as fruitful and convenient for the use of man to
lie waste without any improvement ?

5. We are grown to that height of intemperance in all
excess of riot as no man’s estate almost will suffice to keep
sail with his equals ; and who fails herein must live in
scorn and contempt. Hence it comes that all arts and
trades are carried in that deceitful and unrighteous course
as it is almost impossible for a good and upright man to
maintain his charge and live comfortably in any of them.

6. The fountains of learning and religion are so cor-
rupted as (besides the insupportable charge of their educa-
tion) most children (even the best wits and of fairest hopes)
are perverted, corrupted, and utterly overthrown by the
multitude of evil examples and the licentious government of
those seminaries where men strain at gnats and swallow
camels, use all severity for maintenance of caps and other
accompliments, but suffer all ruffianlike fashions and dis-
order in manners to pass uncontrolled.

7. What can be a better work and more honorable and
worthy a Christian than to help raise and support a par-
ticular church while it is in its infancy, and join his forces
with such a company of faithful people as by a timely
assistance may grow strong and prosper, and for want of
it may be put to great hazard, if not wholly ruined ? . . .

Struggle for Constitutional Government 227

III. The Personal Government of Charles I (1629-
1640) ; Religious Parties

The political antagonism between Parliament and king
was much imbittered by strong religious differences.
The Established Church and its bishops, especially Arch-
bishop Laud, were viewed with distrust by the “ low
church •” party, which believed that the bishops were too
much inclined to support the tyrannical claims of the
king, and that they showed a tendency to reintroduce
“ popish practices.” Naturally the Presbyterians and the
Separatists, or Congregationalists, freely declared their
abhorrence of bishops in general. The origin of the
Puritans during Elizabeth’s reign is thus described by one
of them in a pamphlet, “ The Plea for the Innocent.”

In the beginning of her Majesty’s most happy reign,
the gospel being published and preachers ordained to teach
the people, many people, within a while feeling some taste of
the heavenly comfort, began to delight in hearing of ser-
mons, singing of psalms, in reading, and godly talk of Holy
Scriptures which they were taught ; and therewithal did
somewhat refrain profane and unprofitable customs ; and
sometimes they admonished their neighbors if they did
swear, and pray them to go with them to the sermon ; the
greater sort of the people, being old barrels which could
hold no new wine, addicted partly to popery and partly to
licentiousness, having many of them no other God but
their bellies, would deride and scoff at them, and called
them “holy brethren ” and “ holy sisters ” ; saying, “ He is
one of the pure and unspotted brethren ! ”

The Puritans were especially scrupulous in the observ-
ance of Sunday. The following are some of the fear-
ful instances, cited by a Puritan writer, of God’s anger
against those who desecrated the holy day.

307. Posi-
tion of the
Puritan
(1602).

228

Readings in European History

308. Judg-
ment of God
on those
that break
his holy Sab-
bath day.
(From Wal-
lington’s
Historical
Notices.)

A judgment
on organs.

A husbandman, grinding corn upon the Lord’s day, had
his meal burned to ashes. Another, carrying corn on this
day, had his barn and all his corn therein burnt with fire
from heaven the next night after.

A husbandman would needs go to plow on the Sabbath
day, but mark the fearful judgment of God upon him ; for,
as he cleansed his plow with an iron instrument, the iron
stuck fast in his hand, and could not be got out, but there
stuck two years as a manifest token of God’s wrath against
him for that horrible sin.

On the 23d January, 1582, being the Lord’s day, the
scaffolds fell in Paris Garden under the people at a bear
baiting, so that eight were suddenly slain, innumerable
hurt and maimed. A warning to such who take more
pleasure on the Lord’s day to be in a theater beholding
carnal sports than -to be in the church in serving of God.

At Boston, in Lincolnshire, Mr. Cotton being their for-
mer minister, when he was gone the bishop desired to have
organs set up in the church, but the parish was unwill-
ing to yield ; but, however, the bishop prevailed to be at
the cost to set them up. But they being newly up (not
playing very often with them), a violent storm came in at
one window, and blew the organs to another window, and
brake both organs and window down ; and to this day the
window is out of reputation, being boarded and not glazed.

The Puritans were naturally much aroused when
Charles reissued a declaration of his father’s, permitting,
and even encouraging, popular amusements on Sunday
when the afternoon service was over.

309. Charles! Our dear father of blessed memory, in his return from
encourages Scotland, coming through Lancashire, found that his sub-
other^u^e- j^cts were debarred from lawful recreations upon Sundays
ments on after evening prayers ended and, upon holydays ; and he

Sunday. prudently considered that if these times were taken from

(Declaraticn , 1 1 1 i 1 n 1 1111

of Sports, them, the meaner sort, who labor hard all the week, should

1633.) have no recreations at all to refresh their spirits ; and after

StriLggle for Constitutional Governmerit 229

his return he further saw that his loyal subjects in all other
parts of his kingdom did suffer in the same kind, though
perhaps not in the same degree ; and did therefore, in his
princely wisdom, publish a declaration to all his loving
subjects concerning lawful sports to be used at such times,
which was printed and published by his royal command-
ment in the year 1618, in the tenor which hereafter fol-
loweth :

. . . Whereas we did justly in our progress through
Lancashire rebuke some Puritans and precise people and
took order that the like unlawful carriage should not be
used by any of them hereafter, in the prohibiting and
unlawful punishing of our good people for using their law-
ful recreations and honest exercises upon Sunday and other
holydays, after the afternoon sermon or service, we now
find that two sorts of people wherewith that country is
much infected — we mean papists and Puritans — have
maliciously traduced and calumniated those our just and
honorable proceedings. . . . We have therefore thought
good hereby to clear and make our pleasure to be mani-
fested to all our good people in those parts. . . .

Our pleasure likewise is, that the bishop of that diocese
take the like strait order with all the Puritans and preci-
sians within the same, either constraining them to conform
themselves or to leave the county, according to the laws of
our kingdom and canons of our Church, and so to strike
equally on both hands against the contemners of our
authority and adversaries of our Church ; and as for our
good people’s lawful recreation, our pleasure likewise is,
that after the end of divine service our good people be not
disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recrea-
tion, such as dancing, either men or women ; archery for
men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recrea-
tion, nor from having of May-games, Whitsun-ales, and
Morris-dances, and the setting up of Maypoles and other
sports therewith used, so as the same be had in due and
convenient time, without impediment or neglect of divine
service ; and that women shall have leave to carry rushes

310. Puritan
pamphlet
attacking
the king’s
courts (1641).
(Extract.)

230 . Readings in Eiiropeari History

to the church for the decorating of it, according to their
old custom ; but withal we do here account still as pro-
hibited all unlawful games to be used upon Sundays only,
as bear and bull baitings, interludes, and at all times in
the meaner sort of people by law prohibited, bowling.

To the ardent Puritan the Church of England, as rep-
resented by Archbishop Laud, the tyrannical king, and
the corrupt courts and judges, formed a single great
conspiracy against civil and religious liberty. One of
the innumerable pamphlets of the time describes a new
treaty just concluded between the devil, the pope, and
the Jesuits, on the one hand, and the English courts on
the other.

Articles of agreement made, co7icliided, and do7ie this 28th of
September, m the year of grace 1641, and of the world ^662,
by and between the high a7id mighty prince, Lucifer, kmg of
Styx and Phlegethon, the holy a?id most superstitious primate
of the Roman Church, the cardmals, bishops, Jesuits, priests,
and se77iinaries, of the one party ; and Judge Bf'ibery, Law-
yer Corruption, Attorney ConteJition, Solicitor Sedition, Jus-
tice Co7i7iiva7ice, Jailor Oppression, and State Negligence, of
the other party, in ma7i7ier a7id form followmg :

It is this day mutually agreed, by and between the several
parties above named, that there shall be a league, offensive
and defensive, concluded and confirmed by both parties, at
or before Holy-rood day next ensuing the date hereof.

Item : That whereas there hath been lately, by the subtle
practices of some parliamentary reformists, a discord and
dissension raised between the state ecclesiastic and the
state of the inns of court, whereby there hath happened no
small prejudice unto the ecclesiastic state ; the like whereof
is to be doubted may also fall upon the state of the inns of
court, and so consequently upon the crown and dignity of
our sovereign lord. King Lucifer ; it is therefore mutually
agreed that all former controversies and contentions between

Struggle for Co7istitutional Governmejit 231

both parties shall cease, and that all unity, peace, and con-
cord shall be embraced, on either side, according to the
expressions in the precedent article, to the honor of our
sovereign lord. King Lucifer, his crown and dignity.

Item: It is agreed that the said state of the ^ inns of
court and the state ecclesiastic aforesaid shall jointly and
severally use the uttermost of their strength, power, and
policy to resist and suppress all such proceedings of this
present Parliament which shall any way tend to the refor-
mation and suppression of oppression, extortion, bribery,
contention, and tradition ; and that they shall and will,
with all their might, power, and policy, endeavor and
strive to broach, advance, and maintain all the said several
impieties again, to the honor of our sovereign lord. King
Lucifer, his crown and dignity.

Item : It is agreed by and between our sovereign lord.
King Lucifer, and the whole state ecclesiastic, of the one
part, and Judge Bribery, that forthwith, upon the dissolu-
tion of this present Parliament, he, the said Judge Bribery,
is then again to put in practice the taking of bribes, pass-
ing of false judgment, and maintaining his false and corrupt
sentences and decrees to be things sacred and infallible ;
oppressing the innocent by close imprisonment, and also
favoring all Jesuits, priests, and seminaries, if any of them
happen by the instruments of justice to be laid hold on ;
animating and instructing all attorneys, solicitors, and
clerks, for and to the sowing of strife and contention
amongst the people of the land, to the honor of our sover-
eign lord. King Lucifer, his crown and dignity.

On the other hand, there were not wanting satires on
the dissenters, who stood out against the Book of Com-
mon Prayer and the service therein prescribed by the
government. The pompous discussions among cobblers
and tinkers of matters of which they had little under-
standing naturally provoked mirth and scorn, as is shown
by the following lampoon.

232

Readings in European History

311. Amin-
adab Blower
rejects the
Book of
Common
Prayer.

(A satire
of uncertain
date.)

Some stnall and sh7iple reasons^ delivered hi a hollow tree, in
Waltham Forest, in a lecture, on the jjd of March last, by
Aminadab Blower, a devout bellows mender of Pimlico ; show-
ing the causes, in general and particular, wherefore they do,
might, would, should, or ought, except against and quite
refuse the Litmgy or Book of Common Prayer :

My dear beloved and zealous brethren and sisters here
assembled in this holy congregation, I am to unfold, unravel,
untwist, untie, unloose, and undo, to your uncapable under-
standings, some small reasons, the matter, the causes, the
motives, the grounds, the principles, the maxims, the whys
and the wherefores, wherefore and why, we reject, omit,
abandon, contemn, despise, and are and ought to be with-
standers and opposers of the service book, called by the
hard name of Liturgy, or Common Prayer, which hath con-
tinued in the Church of England eighty-four years.

I have exactly examined and collected some notes and
observations out of the learned Hebrew translated volumes
of Rabbi Ananias, Rabbi Ahitophel, Rabbi Iscariot, Rabbi
Simon Magus, Rabbi Demas, and Rabbi Alexander the
coppersmith, and all nor any of their writings doth in any
place so much as mention that book, or any such kind of
service, to be used at all by them. I have farther taken
pains in looking over some Chaldean, Persian, Egyptian,
Arabian, and Arminian authors, of which I understood not
one word ; I also (with the like diligence and understand-
ing) have viewed the Turkish Alchoran, and there I found
not a syllable concerning either Liturgy, Common Prayer,
or divine service. As for Greek authors, I must confess I
understand them not, or negatively, for which reason I
leave them as impertinent ; and, touching the Latin writ-
ers, they are partial in this case, the tongue being Roma-
nian and the idiom Babylonish, which seems to me an
intricate confusion.

I, having carefully viewed the tomes and tenets of reli-
gion and books of all manner of hieroglyphics, writings,
scrolls, tallies, scores, and characters, and finding nothing
for the maintaining of that book or Liturgy, I looked into the

Struggle for Constitutional Govermnent 233

ecclesiastical history written by one Eusebius, and another
fellow they call Socrates,^ wherein I found many arguments
and incitements to move men to such doctrine as is com-
prised and compiled in the Liturgy. After that I searched
into the acts and monuments of this kingdom, written by
old Fox,^ and there I found that the composers of it were
bishops and doctors, and great learned schoolmen of
unfeigned integrity, of impregnable constancy, who, with
invincible faith, suffered most glorious martyrdom by the
papal tyranny, for the writing and maintaining that book,
with the true Protestant religion contained in it.

Brethren, I must confess that I was somewhat puzzled
in my mind at these things, and I could not be satisfied
till I had consulted with some of our devout brothers. Our
brother How, the cobbler, was the first I broke my mind to,
and we advised to call or summon a synod to be held in
my Lord Brook’s stable, the Reverend Spencer, the stable
groom, being the metropolitan there. At our meeting there
was Greene the felt maker, Barebones the leather seller.
Squire the tailor, with Hoare a weaver, and Davison a
bone-lace maker of Messenden, and Paul Hickeson of
Wickham, tailor, with some four or five baker’s dozens of
weavers, millers, tinkers, botchers, broom men, porters,
of all trades, many of them bringing notes with them fit-
ting for our purpose. . . .

IV. The Early Acts of the Long Parliament

The attempt of Charles I, Laud, and the Episcopal
party to force a new religious service on the Scotch
provoked a struggle which led to war. A clergyman, in
a letter to Strafford, dated October 9, 1637, describes
the reception accorded to the innovation by the
Scotch.

1 A church historian somewhat later than Eusebius.

2 The author of the well-known Book of Martyrs. See above, p. 199.

234

Readings in European History

312. Opposi-
tion of the
Scotch to
the church
service intro-
duced by
Charles I.

I mentioned before an attempt to bring in our English
church service into Scotland, which made a great hubbub
there, and was repelled with much violence by the common
people, though women appeared most in action, flinging
their stools at the bishop, and renting his episcopal gar-
ments off him as he went forth of the church, others fling-
ing stones at him in the streets, so that if the earl of
Roxborough had not sought to quiet them, and received
him into his coach, they had stoned him to death. A sec-
ond attempt hath been made, of which fresh news is come
thence to the court, wherein they have sped worse. Besides,
some of the nobles and many of the gentry and better sort
appear in it, who withstand it with greater violence than
before, so that there is no hope that it will be effected.

By the war with the Scotch, Charles was placed in a
sad financial plight, and was forced to summon Parlia-
ment again in order to raise money A Scotch army
was in the north of England, remaining inactive only on
condition that ^850 a day was paid them for mainte-
nance. This money Charles could not secure unless he
yielded to the demands of Parliament for reform and the
redress of grievances. It was thus that the important
measures of the Long Parliament during the first months
of its existence were accepted under compulsion by the
king. The conviction that the king had not surrendered
of his own free will produced a deep distrust of his
motives and actions, which continued throughout the
civil war and until his execution.

313. Sum- They [the Parliament] began by throwing down monop-
work of the okes, and then impeached the earl of Strafford of high
Long Parlia- treason, who, after a solemn trial and hot disputes on both
ment in 1641.

(From 1 The so-called “ Short ” Parliament was summoned in April, 1640,

7ife°opC°oIonel weeks was dissolved by the irritated king. The sessions

Hutchinson.) of the “ Long” Parliament began in November, 1640.

Struggle for Constitutio7ial Government 235

sides, was at length attainted of treason ; and the king,
against his own mind, to serve his ends, gave him up to
death. The archbishop of Canterbury was also made pris-
oner upon an accusation of high treason, for which he
after suffered ; Wren, bishop of Norwich, was likewise com-
mitted to the Tower ; several other prelatical preachers were
questioned for popish and treasonable doctrines ; the Star
Chamber, an unjust and arbitrary court, was taken away,
and the High Commission Court ; an act was procured for
a triennial Parliament, and another for the continuation
of this, that it should not be broken up without their own
consent. There were great necessities for money by reason
of the two armies that were then maintained in England,
and the people would give the king no money without some
ease of grievances, which forced him, against his inclina-
tion, to grant those bills, with which, after he had granted,
he found he had bound up his own hands, and therefore
privately encouraged plots that were in those times con-
trived against the Parliament.

The Grand Remonstrance, which the commons drew
up after spending a year in rectifying the abuses of
Charles’ personal government, contains a gloomy review
of his reign and an account of the measures already
passed by the Long Parliament with a view of doing
away with the abuses. Some notion of this remarkable
document may be derived from the following extracts.^

314. Ex-
tracts from
the Grand
Remon-
strance of
the com-
mons, pre-
sented to
Charles I,
December i,
1641.

The commons in this present Parliament assembled
having, with much earnestness and faithfulness of affection
and zeal to the public good of this kingdom and his
Majesty’s honor and service, for the space of twelve months,
wrestled with great dangers and fears, the pressing miseries
and calamities, the various distempers and disorders which

1 The full text of the Grand Remonstrance would fill toward thirty
pages of this volume. The whole document is given by Gardiner, Con~
stitutioiial Documents, pp. 202-232.

Objects of
the present
remonstrance.

The Jesuits.

236 Readings in European History

had not only assaulted but even overwhelmed and extin-
guished the liberty, peace, and prosperity of this kingdom,
the comfort and hopes of all his Majesty’s good subjects,
and exceedingly weakened and undermined the foundation
and strength of his own royal throne, do yet find an abound-
ing malignity and opposition in those parties and factions
who have been the cause of those evils and do still labor
to cast aspersions upon that which hath been done, and to
raise many difficulties for the hindrance of that which
remains yet undone, and to foment jealousies between the
king and Parliament, that so they may deprive him and
his people of the fruit of his own gracious intentions, and
their humble desires of procuring the public peace, safety,
and happiness of this realm.

For the preventing of those miserable effects, which such
malicious endeavors may produce, we have thought good
to declare the root and the growth of these mischievous
designs ; the maturity and ripeness to which they have at-
tained before the beginning of the Parliament ; the effec-
tual means which have been used for the extirpation of
those dangerous evils, and the progress which hath therein
been made by his Majesty’s goodness and the wisdom of
the Parliament ; the ways of obstruction and opposition by
which that progress hath been interrupted ; the courses to
be taken for the removing those obstacles, and for the
accomplishing of our most dutiful and faithful intentions
and endeavors of restoring and establishing the ancient
honor, greatness, and security of this crown and nation.

The root of all this mischief we find to be a malignant
and pernicious design of subverting the fundamental laws
and principles of government, upon which the religion and
justice of this kingdom are firmly established. The actors
and promoters hereof have been :

1. The Jesuited papists, who hate the laws as the obsta-
cles of that change and subversion of religion which they so
much long for.

2. The bishops and the corrupt part of the clergy, who
cherish formality and superstition as the natural effects

Stj'uggle for Co7istitutional Government

237

and more probable supports of their own ecclesiastical
tyranny and usurpation.

3. Such councilors and courtiers as for private ends
have engaged themselves to further the interests of some
foreign princes or states to the prejudice of his Majesty
and the state at home. . . .

In the beginning of his Majesty’s reign, the [Catholic]
party began to revive and flourish again, having been
somewhat damped by the breach with Spain in the last
year of King James, and by his Majesty’s marriage with
France . . ., the papists of England, having ever been
more addicted to Spain than France ; yet they still retained
a purpose and resolution to weaken the Protestant parties
in all parts, and even in France, whereby to make way for
the change of religion which they intended at home. . . .
[The effects and evidence of their recovery have been:]

The Petition of Right, which was granted in full Parlia-
ment, blasted with an illegal declaration to make it destruc-
tive to itself, to the power of Parliament, to the liberty of
the subject, and to that purpose printed with it, and the
petition made of no use but to show the bold and presump-
tuous injustice of such ministers as durst break the laws
and suppress the liberties of the kingdom, after they had
been so solemnly and evidently declared. . . .

After the breach of the Parliament in the fourth [year]
of his Majesty, injustice, oppression, and violence broke in
upon us without any restraint or moderation, and yet the
first project was the great sums exacted through the whole
kingdom for the default of knighthood, which seemed to
have some color and shadow of a law, yet if it be rightly
examined by that obsolete law which was pretended for it,
it will be found to be against all the rules of justice. . . .

Tonnage and poundage ^ hath been received without
color or pretense of law ; many other heavy impositions
continued against law, and some so unreasonable that the
sum of the charge exceeds the value of the goods. . . .

^ For an explanation of these royal exactions on imports and exports,
see Cheyney, Short History of Englatid, p. 417.

The Petition
of Right
rendered
nugatory.

Ship money

Monopolies
in the king’s
interest.

Court of Star
Chamber.

Court of
High Com-
mission.

238 Readings in European History

And although all this was taken upon pretense of guard-
ing the seas, yet a new unheard-of tax of ship money was
devised, and upon the same pretense, by both which there
was charged upon the subject near £^00,000 some years;
and yet the merchants have been left so naked to the violence
of the Turkish pirates that many great ships of value and
thousands of his Majesty’s subjects have been taken by
them, and do still remain in miserable slavery. . . .

The monopolies of soap, salt, wine, leather, sea coal,
and in a manner of all things of most common and neces-
sary use. ...

The Court of Star Chamber hath abounded in extrava-
gant censures not only for the maintenance and improve-
ment of monopolies and other unlawful taxes, but for
divers other causes where there hath been no offense, or
very small ; whereby his Majesty’s subjects have been op-
pressed by grievous fines, imprisonments, stigmatizings,
mutilations, whippings, pillories, gags, confinements, ban-
ishments; after so rigid a manner as hath not only deprived
men of the society of their friends, exercise of their profes-
sions, comfort of books, use of paper or ink, but even vio-
lated that near union which God hath established between
men and their wives, by forced and constrained separation,
whereby they have been bereaved of the comfort and con-
versation-one of another for many years together, without
hope of relief, if God had not, by his overruling providence,
given some interruption to the prevailing power and coun-
sel of those who were the authors and promoters of such
peremptory and heady courses. . . .

The High Commission grew to such excess of sharpness
and severity as was not much less than the Romish Inqui-
sition. . . . The bishops and their courts were as eager in
the country ; although their jurisdiction could not reach so
high in rigor and extremity of punishment, yet were they
no less grievous in respect of the generality and multipli-
city of vexations, which, lighting upon the meaner sort of
tradesmen and artificers, did impoverish many thousands,
and so afflict and trouble others that great numbers, to avoid

Struggle for Constitutional Government 239

their miseries, departed out of the kingdom, some into New
England and other parts of America, others into Holland. . . .

This faction was grown to that height and entireness
of power that now they began to think of finishing their
work, which consisted of these three parts :

I. The government must be set free from all restraint of
laws concerning our persons and estates.

II. There must be a conjunction between papists and
Protestants in doctrine, discipline, and ceremonies, only it
must not yet be called popery.

III. The Puritans, under which name they include all
that desire to preserve the laws and liberties of the king-
dom and to maintain religion in the power of it, must be
either rooted out of the kingdom with force or driven out
with fear.

For the affecting of this it was thought necessary to
reduce Scotland to such popish superstitions and innova-
tions as might make them apt to join with England in that
great change which was intended. Whereupon new canons
and a new liturgy were pressed upon them, and when they
refused to admit of them an army was raised to force them
to it, towards which the clergy and the papists were very
forward in their contribution.^

V. The Civil War

On August 22, 1642, the king raised his standard at
Nottingham, and the settlement of the deadlock between
him and Parliament was intrusted to the fortunes of war.
The first stage of the contest lasted until the middle of
1646. During this period the famous battles of Edge-
hill (1642), Marston Moor (1644), and Naseby ^ (1645)

^ The Parliament, after enumerating the abuses here given and many
others, reviews at length the legislation of preceding months by which
it has sought to establish the government on a firm and legal basis.

2 A description of the battle of Naseby by a member of the Long
Parliament is to be found in Kendall, Source Book, pp. 245 sqq.

Objects of
Charles’ late
ministers.

Scottish

wars.

240

Readings in European History

315. A Puri-
tan’s ac-
count of the
battle of
Edgehill.
(From
Nehemiah
Wallington.)

How God
guided the
bullets.

were fought. A devout Puritan thus describes the mar-
velous manner in which the Lord aided the raw troops
in their fight against the king’s army at Edgehill.

1642. October the 23d, being the Lord’s day in the fore-
noon, both the armies met in the midway between Banbury
and Stratford-upon-Avon. And they had a very hot skir-
mish, their ordnance playing very hot from twelve o’clock
till three in the afternoon, and made a great slaughter, and
then the main forces joined battle, both horse and foot, and
had a furious skirmish on both sides, which continued for
all that day.

But that which I would take notice of is God’s great
mercy and providence, which was seen to his poor despised
children, that although the enemy came traitorously and
suddenly upon them, and unexpectedly, and four of our
regiments falling from us, and our soldiers being a company
of despised, inexperienced youths, which never used to lie
in the fields on the cold ground before the enemy, they
being strong, old, experienced soldiers. But herein we see
God’s great mercy, for all that to give us the victory ; for,
as I hear, the slaughter was in all five thousand five hun-
dred and seventeen ; but ten of the enemy’s side were slain
to one of ours. And observe God’s wonderful works, for
those that were slain of our side were mostly of them that
ran away ; but those that stood most valiantly to it, they
were most preserved ; so that you may see the Lord stands
for them that stand for him.

If I could but relate how admirably the hand of Provi-
dence ordered our artillery and bullets for the destruction
of the enemy, when a piece of ordnance was shot off,
what a lane was made in their army ! Oh, how God did
guide the bullets [of the enemy also] (as I wrote afore at
Southam), that some fell down before them, some grazed
along, some bullets went over their heads, and some one
side of them ! Oh, how seldom or never almost were they
hurt that stood valiant to it, by their bullets ! You would
stand and wonder. . . .

Struggle for ConstiUliional Gover7i7nent 241

Again, consider one wonderful work of our God more ;
which is, that many of our youths that went forth were
weakly and sickly, some with the king’s evil, some with
agues, and some with the toothache, which their parents
and friends were in great care and grief for ; yet, when
they have lain days and nights in the wet and cold fields,
which one would think should make a well body sick, much
more to increase their misery and pain that were ill, yet
they have testified that their pain had left them, and [they
were] never better in all their lives.

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in my eyes.

I did forget to write this remarkable passage, how the
king’s army shot off thirty pieces of ordnance and killed
not passing four of our men ; and the first time we shot
we made a lane among them, cutting off two of their colors.

A pamphleteer of the time sees only the horrors and
desolation of the civil strife.

The war went on with horrid rage in many places at one
time ; and the fire, when once kindled, cast forth, through
every corner of the land, not only sparks but devouring
flames ; insomuch that the kingdom of England was divided
into more seats of war than counties ; nor has she more
fields than skirmishes, nor cities than sieges ; and almost
all the palaces of lords, and other great houses, were turned
everywhere into garrisons of war. They fought at once by
sea and land ; and through all England (who could but
lament the miseries of his country !) sad spectacles were
seen of plundering and firing villages ; and the fields, other-
wise waste and desolate, were rich only and terribly glori-
ous in camps and armies.

VI. The Execution of Charles I (1649)

The death warrant of Charles I, issued by “the High
Court of Justice for the trying and judging of Charles
Stuart, king of England,” reads as follows :

God’s mercy
toward them
in the Parlia-
ment’s army
that were
sickly.

316. The
general
desolation
caused by
the civil
war. (From
a pamphlet
of the time.)

317. Death
warrant of
Charles I
(January 29,
1649.)

318. Charles’
parting
words to his
daughter
Elizabeth.

242 Readings in European History

Whereas Charles Stuart, king of England, is, and stand-
eth convicted, attainted, and condemned of high treason,
and other high crimes ; and sentence upon Saturday last
was pronounced against him by this Court, to be put
to death by the severing of his head from his body ; of
which sentence, execution yet remaineth to be done ; these
[presents] are therefore to will and require you to see the
said sentence executed in the open street before Whitehall,
upon the morrow, being the thirtieth day of this instant
month of January, between the hours of ten in the morning
and five in the afternoon of the same day, with full effect.
And for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant. And
these are to require all officers, soldiers, and others, the
good people of this nation of England, to be assisting unto
you in this service.

To Colonel Francis Hacker, Colonel Huncks, and Lieu-
tenant Colonel Phayre, and to every of them.

Given under our hands and seals.

John Bradshaw.

Thomas Grey.

Oliver Cromwell.

Etc., etc.

A relation of the king’s last words to his daughter,
Lady Elizabeth, from her own hand ^ :

He told me he was glad I had come ; and although he
had not time to say much, yet somewhat he had to say to
me which he had not to another, or leave in writing,
because he feared their cruelty was such as that they would
not have permitted him to write to me. He wished me not
to grieve and torment myself for him, for that would be a
glorious death that he should die, it being for the laws and
liberties of this land, and for maintaining the true Protes-
tant religion. He bid me read Bishop Andrews’ sermons.
Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Politic^ and Bishop Laud’s book

1 In regard to the famous Eikon Basilike, purporting to have been
written by Charles during his last days, see below, p. 267.

Struggle for Constitutional Government 243

against Fisher, which would ground me against popery.
He told me he had forgiven all his enemies, and hoped God
would forgive them also ; and commanded us, and all the
rest of my brothers and sisters, to forgive them. He bid
me tell my mother that his thoughts had never strayed
from her, and that his love should be the same to the last.
Withal he commanded me and my brother to be obedient
to her, and bid me send his blessing to the rest of my
brothers and sisters, with commendation to all his friends.
So after he had given me his blessing, I took my leave.

Further, he commanded us all to forgive those people,
but never to trust them, for they had been most false to
him, and to those that gave them power ; and he feared
also to their own souls ; and desired me not to grieve for
him, for he should die a martyr ; and that he doubted not
but the Lord would settle his throne upon his son, and that
we should all be happier than we could have expected to
have been if he had lived; with many other things, which
at present I cannot remember.

Charles I closed a brief address which he made at the
last moment as follows :

[As for the people,] truly I desire their liberty and free-
dom as much as anybody whomsoever ; but I must tell you
that their liberty and freedom consist in having of govern-
ment, those laws by which their life and their goods may
be most their own. It is not for having share in govern-
ment, sirs ; that is nothing pertaining to them ; a subject
and a sovereign are clear different things. And therefore
until they do that, I mean that you do put the people in
that liberty, as I say, certainly they will never enjoy them-
selves. Sirs, it was for this that now I am come here. If I
would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all
laws changed according to the power of the sword, I needed
not to have come here ; and therefore I tell you (and I
pray God it be not laid to your charge) that I am the
martyr of the people. . . .

319. An
account of
the ex-
ecution of
Charles I.

244 Readings in European History

And to the executioner he said, “ I shall say but very
short prayers, and when I thrust out my hands — ”

Then he called to the bishop for his cap, and having put
it on, asked the executioner, “ Does my hair trouble you ?”
who desired him to put it all under his cap ; which, as he
was doing by the help of the bishop and the executioner,
he turned to the bishop, and said, have a good cause,
and a gracious God on my side.”

The bishop said, “There is but one stage more, which,
though turbulent and troublesome, yet is a very short one.
You may consider it will soon carry you a very great way ;
it will carry you from earth to heaven ; and there you shall
find to your great joy the prize you hasten to, a crown
of glory.”

The king adjoins, “ I go from a corruptible to an incor-
ruptible crown ; where no disturbance can be, no disturb-
ance in the world.”

The bishop. “You are exchanged from a temporal to an
eternal crown, — a good exchange.”

Then the king asked the executioner, “ Is my hair well ?”
And taking off his cloak and George,^ he delivered his
George to the bishop, . . .

Then putting off his doublet and being in his waistcoat,
he put on his cloak again, and looking upon the block,
said to the executioner, “You must set it fast.”

The executioner. “It is fast, sir.”

King. “ It might have been a little higher.”

Executioner. “ It can be no higher, sir.”

King. “When I put out my hands this way, then — ”
Then having said a few words to himself, as he stood,
with hands and eyes lift up, immediately stooping down
he laid his neck upon the block ; and the executioner,
again putting his hair under his cap, his Majesty, thinking
he had been going to strike, bade him, “Stay for the sign.”
Executioner. “Yes, I will, an it please your Majesty.”

1 The jeweled pendant of the Order of the Garter, bearing a figure of
St. George.

Struggle for Constitutional Gove7'-nment 245

After a very short pause, his Majesty stretching forth his
hands, the executioner at one blow severed his head from
his body ; which, being held up and showed to the people,
was with his body put into a coffin covered with black vel-
vet and carried into his lodging.

His blood was taken up by divers persons for different
ends : by some as trophies of their villainy ; by others as
relics of a martyr ; and in some hath had the same effect,
by the blessing of God, which was often found in his sacred
touch when living.

VII. The Commonwealth and Cromwell

March 17, 1649, Parliament abolished the office of
king.

Whereas Charles Stuart, late king of England, Ireland,
and the territories and dominions thereunto belonging,
hath, by authority derived from Parliament, been and is
hereby declared to be justly condemned, adjudged to die,
and put to death, for many treasons, murders, and other
heinous offenses committed by him, by which judgment he
stood, and is hereby declared to be, attainted of high trea-
son, whereby his issue and posterity, and all others pre-
tending title under him, are become incapable of the said
crowns or of being king or queen of the said kingdom or
dominions, or either or any of them ; be it therefore enacted
and ordained, and it is enacted, ordained, and declared, by
this present Parliament and by the authority thereof, that
all the people of England and Ireland, and the dominions
and territories thereunto belonging, of what degree or con-
dition soever, are discharged of all fealty, homage, and
allegiance which is or shall be pretended to be due unto
any of the issue and posterity of the said late king, or
any claiming under him, and that Charles Stuart, eldest
son, and James, called duke of York, second son, and all
other the issue and posterity of him the said late king, and
all and every person and persons pretending title from, by.

320. Act
abolishing
the office of
king in
England and
Ireland
(March 17,
1649).

246

Readings in European History

or under him, are and be disabled to hold or enjoy the said
crown of England and Ireland. ...

And whereas it is and hath been found by experience
that the office of a king in this nation and Ireland, and to
have the power thereof in any single person, is unneces-
sary, burdensome, and dangerous to the liberty, safety,
and public interest of the people, and that for the most
part use hath been made of the regal power and preroga-
tive to oppress and impoverish and enslave the subject ;
and that usually and naturally any one person in such
power makes it his interest to encroach upon the just free-
dom and liberty of the people, and to promote the setting
up of their own will and power above the laws, that so they
might enslave these kingdoms to their own lust ; be it
therefore enacted and ordained by this present Parliament,
and by authority of the same, that the office of a king in
this nation shall not henceforth reside in, or be exercised
by, any one single person ; and that no one person whatso-
ever shall or may have or hold the office, style, dignity,
power, or authority of king of the said kingdoms and
dominions.^ . . .

By the spring of 1653 the Long Parliament, which
had been in session nearly thirteen years, was reduced
to a mere “rump,” as its enemies called it. There were
only a hundred or so members left. Cromwell was con-
vinced that the members were corrupt and that they
meant to keep the power in their hands in spite of their

1 The existing Long Parliament agrees in the following paragraphs
to dissolve itself as soon as it can safely do so. The supreme author-
ity is declared to reside in “ this [Parliament] and the successive repre-
sentatives of the people of this nation, and in them only.” Two days
later the House of Lords was abolished. “ The commons of England
assembled in Parliament, finding by too long experience that the House
of Lords is useless and dangerous to the people of England to be con-
tinued, have thought fit to ordain and enact, and be it ordained and
enacted by this present Parliament and by the authority of the same,
that from henceforth the House of Lords in Parliament shall be and is
hereby wholly abolished and taken away. . . .”

Struggle for Constitutional Government 247

talk of dissolving themselves. He most reluctantly de-
cided that it was his duty to scatter them. The famous
scene here described is taken from the journal kept by
Sidney, whose son Algernon was one of the most dis-
tinguished members of the “ rump.”

Wednesday, 20th April. The Parliament sitting as usual,
and being on debate upon the bill ^ with amendments,
which it was thought would have been passed that day,
the Lord General Cromwell came into the House, clad in
plain black clothes, with gray stockings, and sat down, as
he used to do, in an ordinary place. After a while he
rose up, put off his hat, and spake ; at first and for a good
while he spake to the commendation of the Parliament, for
their pains and care of the public good ; but afterwards he
changed his style, told them of their injustice, delays of
justice, self-interest, and other faults. Then he said, “ Per-
haps you think this is not parliamentary language ; I con-
fess it is not, neither are you to expect any such from me.”

Then he put on his hat, went out of his place, and
walked up and down the stage or floor in the midst of the
House, with his hat on his head, and chid them soundly,
looking sometimes, and pointing particularly, upon some
persons, as Sir R. Whitlock, one of the Commissioners for
the Great Seal; Sir Henry Vane, to whom he gave very
sharp language, though he named them not, but by his
gestures it was well known that he meant them.

After this he said to Colonel Harrison (who was a mem-
ber of the House), “Call them in.” Then Harrison went
out, and presently brought in Lieutenant-Colonel Wortley
(who commanded the General’s own regiment of foot), with
five or six files of musketeers, about twenty or thirty with
their muskets. Then the General, pointing to the Speaker
in his chair, said to Harrison, “Fetch him down.” Harri-
son went to the Speaker and spoke to him to come down,
but the Speaker sat still and said nothing. “Take him

321. How
Cromwell
broke up
the rem-
nants of
the Long
Parliament

1 To dissolve itself.

248

Readings m European History

322. Claren-
don’s esti-
mate of
Cromwell.

down,” said the General; then Harrison went and pulled
the Speaker by the gown, and he came down.

It happened that day that Algernon Sidney sat next to
the Speaker on the right hand ; the General said to Har-
rison, “Put him out.” Harrison spake to Sidney to go
out, but he said he would not go out, and sat still. The
General said again, “Put him out.” Then Harrison and
Wortley put their hands upon Sidney’s shoulders, as if they
would force him to go out ; then he rose and went towards
the door.

Then the General went to the table where the mace^ lay,
which used to be carried before the Speaker, and said,
“Take away these baubles.” So the soldiers took away
the mace, and all the House went out ; and at the going
out, they say, the General said to young Henry Vane, call-
ing him by his name, that he might have prevented this
extraordinary course, but he was a juggler and had not so
much as common honesty. All being gone out, the door of
the House was locked, and the key with the mace was car-
ried away, as I heard, by Colonel Otley.^

A distinguished enemy of Cromwell’s, Clarendon, has
given a remarkable picture of the Protector in his His-
tory of the Rebellion.

He was one of those men quos vituperare ne inimici qui-
dem possunt nisi ut simul I an dent ; for he could never have
done half that mischief without great parts of courage and
industry and judgment. And he must have had a wonderful

1 The mace still lies on the table when the House of Commons is
sitting.

2 Another account of this scene, written by an ardent enemy of
Cromwell’s, maybe found in Kendall’s Source Book of English History,
pp. 251 sqq. It corresponds essentially with that given above. It closes
as follows : “ Then Cromwell applied himself to the members of the
House, who were in number between eighty and one hundred, and said
to them, “ It ’s you that have forced me to this, for I have sought the
Lord night and day that he would rather slay me than put upon me the
doing of this work.”

Struggle for Constitutional Governme^it 249

understanding in the natures and humours of men, and as
great a dexterity in the applying them, who from a private
and obscure birth (though of a good family), without interest
of estate, alliance, or friendships, could raise himself to such
a height, and compound and knead such opposite and con-
tradictory tempers, humours, and interests into a consistence
that contributed to his designs and to their own destruction,
whilst himself grew insensibly powerful enough to cut off
those by whom he had climbed in the instant that they pro-
jected to demolish their own building. , . . Without doubt,
no man with more wickedness ever attempted anything,
or brought to pass what he desired more wickedly, more in
the face and contempt of religion and moral honesty ; yet
wickedness as great as his could never have accomplished
those trophies without the assistance of a great spirit, an
admirable circumspection and sagacity, and a most magnani-
mous resolution.

When he appeared first in the Parliament, he seemed to
have a person in no degree gracious, no ornament of dis-
course, none of those talents which use to reconcile the
affections of the standers-by ; yet as he grew into place and
authority, his parts seemed to be renew[ed], as if he had
concealed faculties till he had occasion to use them ; and
when he was to act the part of a great man, he did it with-
out any indecency through the want of custom.

After he was confirmed and invested Protector by the
humble Petition and Advice, he consulted with very few
upon any action of importance, nor communicated any enter-
prise he resolved upon with more than those who were to
have principal parts in the execution of it ; nor to them
sooner than was absolutely necessary. What he once resolved,
in which he was not rash, he would not be dissuaded from,
nor endure any contradiction of his power and authority,
but extorted obedience from them who were not willing to
yield to it. . . .

In all other matters which did not concern the life of his
jurisdiction, he seemed to have great reverence for the law,
and rarely interposed between party and party. And as he

250

Readings in European History

proceeded with this kind of indignation and haughtiness
with those who were refractory and dared to contend with
his greatness, so towards those who complied with his good
pleasure, and courted his protection, he used a wonderful
civility, generosity, and bounty.

To reduce three nations, which perfectly hated him, to an
entire obedience to all his dictates ; to awe and govern those
nations by an army that was indevoted to him and wished
his ruin ; was an instance of a very prodigious address.
But his greatness at home was but a shadow of the glory he
had abroad. It was hard to discover which feared him most,
France, Spain, or the Low Countries, where his friendship
was current at the value he put upon it. And as they did
all sacrifice their honour and their interest to his pleasure,
so there is nothing he could have demanded that either of
them would have denied him. To manifest which, there
need only two instances. The first is, when those of the
valley of Lucerne had unwarily rebelled against the duke of
Savoy, ^ which gave occasion to the pope and the neighbour
princes of Italy to call and solicit for their extirpation, which
their prince positively resolved upon, Cromwell sent his
agent to the duke of Savoy (a prince with whom he had no
correspondence or commerce), and so engaged the Cardinal
[Mazarin], and even terrified the pope himself, without so
much as doing any grace to the English Catholics (nothing
being more usual than his saying that his ships in the Medi-
terranean should visit Civita Vieca, and that the sound of
his canon should be heard in Rome), that the duke of Savoy
thought it necessary to restore all that he had taken from
them, and did renew all those privileges they had formerly
enjoyed and newly forfeited.

A pamphlet of the time shows how a great part of
the English must have felt in 1659 regard to the expe-
diency of calling back Charles II.

1 Clarendon appears to be somewhat confused at this point. He
evidently refers to the massacre of the Vaudois by the duke of Savoy,
which aroused Protestant Europe in 1655.

Struggle for Constitutional Govermnent 251

If we take a view of the several pretensions, carried on
in the nation apart, we shall find the most considerable to
be the Roman Catholic, the Royalist, the Presbyterian, the
Anabaptist, the Army, the Protectorian, and that of the
Parliament.

1. ’Tis the Roman Catholic’s aim not only to abrogate
the penal laws, and become capable of all employments in
the Commonwealth, but to introduce his religion, to restore
the rights of the Church, and utterly eradicate all that he
esteems heresy.

2. ’Tis the Royalist’s desire to bring in the king as a
conqueror, to recover their losses in the late war, be ren-
dered capable of civil employments, and have the former
government of the Church.

3. ’Tis the Presbyterian’s desire to set up his discipline,
to have the covenant reenforced, and only such as take it to
be employed in church or state ; to be indemnified in refer-
ence to what they have done, and secured of what they
possess.

4. ’Tis the wish of the baptized churches that there might
be no ecclesiastical government of any kind, nor ministerial
function, or provision for it ; and that only persons so minded
should be capable of employment ; likewise to be indemni-
fied for what they have done.

5. ’Tis the aim of the Army to govern the nation, to keep
themselves from being disbanded, or engaged in war, to
secure their pay, and to be indemnified for all past action.

6. ’Tis the desire of the family of the late Protector to
establish the heir of the house, that they may rule him, and
he the nation, and so both preserve and advance them-
selves.

7. ’Tis the wish of the present Parliament (as far as they
have one common design) to continue themselves in absolute
power by the specious name of a popular government ; to
new-model and divide, and, at last, take down, the Army ;
and, finally, under the pretences of a committee of Parlia-
ment, or council of state, set up an oligarchy resembling that
of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens.

323. Parties
in England
in 1659, and
expediency
of calling in
Charles II.
(From a
pamphlet of
the time.)

252

Readings in European History

Lastly, ’t is the general interest of the nation to establish
the ancient fundamental laws, upon which every one’s pro-
priety and liberty are built, to settle religion, to procure
a general indemnity for all actions past, to revive their
languishing and almost dead trade, gain an alliance with our
neighbour states; to put the government in such hands as,
besides present force, can plead a legal title to it; into the
hands of such with whose private interest that of the public
not only consists, but in which ’t is necessarily involved,
which likewise does least contradict the aims of particular
parties ; lastly, the hands of such whose counsel is fit to
direct in matters of deliberation, and courage fit to vindicate
the injuries of the nation.

From which premises we may conclude that the preten-
sions of no party now on foot in the nation are attainable ;
or, if attained, are consistent with the good of other parties,
or of the nation ; or, in fine, with their own ; and from hence
likewise one would be apt to conclude that the ruin of the
public is inevitable ; there being no door of hope left open
to receive, no method visible to unite, such distant and
incompatible ends.

But, notwithstanding all this, ’t is not impossible — no,
nor hard — to find an expedient that shall evacuate all these
difficulties ; not only establish the general concernment, but
(exorbitant passion only retrenched) satisfy the real interest
of every party — nay, single person — in the nation.

Now to the cheerful reception of such an overture, I sup-
pose there is no need to persuade, nor even to admonish,
that words and names, however rendered odious, ought not
to frighten us from our certain benefit and dearest interest.
All that is demanded here is that if, upon serious consider-
ation, the proposal be found reasonable, men would be so
kind to themselves as to receive it. The assertion I doubt
not to make most plain and evident, and therefore shall as
plainly pronounce it. ’T is this : the calling in the king is
the certain and only means for the preservation of the king-
dom, and also of the rights and interests of all single per-
sons in it.

Struggle for Constitutional Government 253

VIII. The Restoration of the Stuarts : Charles II

It would be difficult to imagine a more satisfactory
description than that given of Charles II at the time of
his accession by the distinguished historian of the period,
Burnet,

The king was then thirty years of age, and, as might
have been supposed, past the levities of youth and the
extravagance of pleasure. He had a very good understand-
ing : he knew well the state of affairs both at home and
abroad. He had a softness of temper that charmed all who
came near him, till they found out how little they could
depend on good looks, kind words, and fair promises, in
which he was liberal to excess, because he intended nothing
by them but to get rid of importunity and to silence all
further pressing upon him.

He seemed to have no sense of religion ; both at prayers
and sacrament, he, as it were, took care to satisfy people
that he was in no sort concerned in that about which he was
employed ; so that he was very far from being an hypocrite,
unless his assisting at those performances was a sort of hypoc-
risy, as no doubt it was ; but he was sure not to increase that
by any the least appearance of devotion. He said once to
myself, he was no atheist, but he could not think God would
make a man miserable only for taking a little pleasure out
of the way. He disguised his popery to the last ; but when
he talked freely he could not help letting himself out against
the liberty that under the Reformation all men took of in-
quiring into matters, for from their inquiring into matters
of religion they carried the humor further to inquire into
matters of state. He said often he thought government was
a much safer and easier thing where the authority was
believed infallible, and the faith and submission of the peo-
ple was implicit; about which I had once much discourse
with him.

He was affable and easy, and loved to be made so by
all about him. The great art of keeping him long was the

324. A pic-
ture of
Charles II.
(By Gilbert
Burnet, in
his History of
my own Time.)

254

Readings in European History

being easy and the making everything easy to him. He had
made such observations on the French government that he
thought a king who might be checked, or have his ministers
called into account by a Parliament, was but a king in name.
He had a great compass of knowledge, though he was never
capable of great application or study. He understood the
mechanics and physic, and was a good chemist, and much
set on several preparations of mercury, chiefly the fixing it.
He understood navigation well; but above all, he knew the
architecture of ships so perfectly that in that respect he was
exact rather more than became a prince. His apprehension
was quick and his memory good, and he was an everlasting
talker. He told his stories with a good grace, but they came
in his way too often.

He had a very ill opinion both of men and women, and
did not think there was either sincerity or chastity in the
world out of principle, but that some had either the one or
the other out of humor or vanity. He thought that nobody
served him out of love ; and so he was quits with all the
world, and loved others as little as he thought they loved
him. He hated business and could not be easily brought to
mind any; but when it was necessary, and he was set to it,
he would stay as long as his ministers had work for him.
The ruin of his reign, and of all his affairs, was occasioned
chiefly by his delivering himself up at his first coming over
to a mad range of pleasure.

The king’s subjects, according to Burnet, also delivered
themselves up to wild rejoicing and indulgence.

324a. How
England
went mad
over the
return of
Charles II.
(From
Burnet.)

With the restoration of the king, a spirit of extravagant
joy being spread over the nation, that brought on with it the
throwing off the very professions of virtue and piety : all
ended in entertainments and drunkenness, which overran the
three kingdoms to such a degree that it very much corrupted
all their morals. Under the color of drinking the king’s
health, there were great disorders and much riot everywhere ;
and the pretenses to religion, both in those of the hypocriti-
cal sort and of the more honest but no less pernicious

Struggle for Constitutional Gover7iment 255

enthusiasts, gave great advantages, as well as they furnished
much matter, to the profane mockers at all true pietyd

Two remarkable diaries of this period have been pre-
served,— one by Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), a very
active government official under Charles II ; the other
by John Evelyn (1620-1706), a gentleman fond of
science, letters, and gardening. These diaries are the
most delightful sources for the period they cover. The
following entries give a picture of the barbarous habits
of the time.

October ij, 1660. I went out to Charing Cross to see
Major-General Harrison^ hanged, drawn, and quartered;
which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man
could do in that condition. He was presently cut down,
and his head and heart shown to the people, at which
there was great shouts of joy. It is said that he said that
he was sure to come shortly at the right hand of Christ
to judge them that now judged him ; and that his wife do
expect his coming again. Thus it was my chance to see
the king beheaded at Whitehall, and to see the first blood
shed in revenge for the king at Charing Cross.

October 25, 1660. This morning Mr. Carew was hanged
and quartered at Charing Cross ; but his quarters, by a
great favor, are not to be hanged up.

October 27, 1660. Scot, Scroope, Cook, and Jones suf-
fered for the reward of their iniquities at Charing Cross,
in sight of the place where they put to death their natural
Prince, and in the presence of the King, his son, whom
they also sought to kill. I saw not their execution, but
met their quarters mangled and cutt and reeking as they
were brought from the gallows in baskets on the hurdle.
O the miraculous providence of God !

1 This account of Burnet’s is substantiated by the orders issued
against drunkenness and rioting throughout the realm.

2 See above, pp. 247 sq.

325. Savage
vengeance
taken upon
the leaders
of the late
rebellion,
(From Pepys’
Diary.)

326. Execu-
tion of the
regicides.
(From
Evelyn’s
Diary.)

327. Act of
Uniformity
(1662).
(Extracts.)

256 Readings in European History

January jo, 1661. This day (O the stupendious and
inscrutable judgments *of God !) were the carcasses of
those arch-rebells Cromwell, Bradshaw, the Judge who
condemned his Majestie, and Ireton, sonn-in-law to ye
Usurper, dragged out of their superb tombs in Westmin-
ster among the kings, to Tyburn e, and hanged on the gal-
lows from 9 in the morning till 6 at night, and then buried
under that fatal and ignominious monument in a deepe
pitt ; thousands of people who had seene them in all their
pride being spectators.

May 22, 1661. The Scotch Covenant was burnt by the
common hangman in divers places in London. O pro-
digious change !

IX. Religious Questions under Charles II

Charles II and Parliament had to face the old diffi-
culty of steering a middle course between the various
Protestant sects, on the one hand, — Presbyterians, In-
dependents, etc., who were supposed to be disaffected
toward the government as well as toward the Estab-
lished Church, — and, on the other hand, the Catholics,
whom Parliament and the nation at large abhorred,
although the king was secretly favorable to them. Fol-
lowing the policy of Elizabeth, the Act of Uniformity
was passed in 1662.

Whereas, in the first year of the late Queen Elizabeth,
there was one uniform order of common service and prayer,
and the administration of the sacraments, rites, and cere-
monies in the Church of England (agreeable to the word
of God and usage of the primitive Church), compiled by
the reverend bishops and clergy, set forth in one book, en-
titled The Book of Common Prayer . . . and enjoined to
be used by act of Parliament holden in the said first year of
the said late queen, entitled “An act for the uniformity of

Struggle for Constitiitio7ial Gove7'7ime7it

257

common prayer and service in the Church and administra-
tion of the sacraments,” very comfortable to all good peo-
ple desirous to live in Christian conversation, and most
profitable to the estate of this realm ; upon the which the
mercy, favor, and blessing of Almighty God is in no wise
so readily and plentifully poured as by common prayers,
due using of the sacraments, and often preaching of the
gospel, with devotion of the hearers ; and yet, this notwith-
standing, a great number of people in divers parts of this
realm, following their own sensuality, and living without
knowledge and due fear of God, do willfully and schismat-
ically abstain and refuse to come to their parish churches,
and other public places where common prayer, administra-
tion of the sacraments, and preaching of the word of God
is used upon the Sundays and other days ordained and ap-
pointed to be kept and observed as holydays ; and whereas,
by the great and scandalous neglect of ministers in using
the said order or liturgy so set forth and enjoined as afore-
said, great mischiefs and inconveniences, during the times
of the late unhappy troubles, have arisen and grown, and
many people have been led into factions and schisms, to
the great decay and scandal of the reformed religion of the
Church of England, and to the hazard of many souls, . . .
be it enacted by the king’s most excellent majesty, by the
advice and with the consent of the lords spiritual and tem-
poral, and of the commons in this present Parliament
assembled, that all and singular ministers in any cathe-
dral, collegiate, or parish church or chapel, or other place
of public worship, shall be bound to say and use the
morning prayer, evening prayer, celebration and adminis-
tration of both the sacraments, and all other the public
and common prayer, in such order and form as is men-
tioned in the said book annexed and joined to this present
act and entitled The Book of Common PrayerP . . ,

1 The act provides in the succeeding clauses that all clergymen who
refuse to declare their “ unfeigned assent and consent to all and every-
thing contained and prescribed in and by the book entitled “ The Book
of Common Prayer” shall be deprived of their benefices.

Perversity
of the
dissenters.

258

Readings in Etiropean History

Next, Parliament, in 1664, declared all religious meet-
ings, except those in accordance with the rules of the
Church of England, to be illegal. Any meeting for reli-
gious worship at which five were present besides the
family was declared a “conventicle,” and every person
above sixteen there present was to lie three months
in prison or pay ^5 for the first offense; six months
or £,20 fine for the second offense ; for the third offense
he was to be banished to any plantation, except New
England or Virginia, or pay ^100. Burnet thus speaks
of the repassing of this act in 1670 :

328. Harsh
act against
dissenters.
(From
Burnet.)

Bold opposi-
tion of the
Quakers.

When [after the great London fire of 1666] the city was
pretty well rebuilt, they began to take care of the churches,
which had lain in ashes some years ; and in that time con-
venticles abounded in all parts of the city. It was thought
hard to hinder men from worshiping God any way as they
could, when there were no churches, nor ministers to look
after them. But now they began to raise churches of
boards, till the public allowance should be raised towards
the building of churches. These they called tabernacles,
and they fitted them up with pews and galleries as churches.
So now an act was proposed reviving the former act against
conventicles. . . . This act was executed in the city very
severely in Starling’s mayoralty, and put things in such
disorder that many of the trading men of the city began to
talk of removing with their stock over to Holland ; but the
king ordered a stop be put to further severities.

Many of the sects either discontinued their meetings or
held them very secretly, with small numbers, and not in
the hours of public worship ; yet informers were encour-
aged and were everywhere at work. The behavior of the
Quakers was more particular, and had something in it
that looked bold. They met at the same place and at the
same hour as before ; and when they were seized, none of
them would go out of the way : they went all together to

Struggle for Constitutional Government 259

prison ; they stayed there till they were dismissed, for they
would not petition to be set at liberty, nor would they pay
the fines set on them, nor so much as the jail fees, calling
these wages of unrighteousness. And as soon as they were
let out they went to their meeting-houses again ; and when
they found these were shut up by order, they held their
meetings on the street, before the doors of those houses.
They said that they would not disown or be ashamed of
their meeting together to worship God ; but, in imitation
of Daniel, they would do it the more publicly because they
were forbidden doing it. Some called this obstinacy, while
others called it firmness. But by it they carried their point,
for the government grew weary of dealing with so much
perverseness and so began with letting them alone.

X. James II and the Revolution of 1688

Two writers of the time make clear the impression
which James ITs attempt to restore the Roman Catholic
faith in England made upon the Protestants.

November 20, i68g. The popish party at this time behaved
themselves with an insolence which did them a prejudice.
The king of France continued to practice all the cruelties
imaginable towards the Protestants in France to make them
turn papists, commanding that all extremities should be used
but death, — as seizing their lands, razing their temples and
houses, taking all their goods, putting them into prisons,
quartering dragoons with them to eat up their estates and to
watch them that they should not sleep till they changed their
religion. Many of them fled into all parts as they could
escape, poor and naked ; for their estates were stopped and
themselves condemned to the gallows if they were taken
attempting to fly.

March t', 1686. Though it could not be said that there
was as yet any remarkable invasion upon the rights of the
Church of England, yet the king gave all the encouragement
he could to the increase of his own, by putting more papists

329. James
II, like the
French king,
seems about
to restore
the Roman
Catholic
Church.
(From
Reresby’s
Memoires.)

26o

Readings in Eui^opean History

330. Roman
Catholic
services at
James II’s
court. (From
Evelyn’s
Diary.)

into office, but especially in Ireland ; by causing or allowing
popish books to be printed and sold and cried publicly; by
publishing some popish papers found in the late king’s closet
and the declaration of his dying a papist and the manner of
it ; ... by sending my Lord Castlemain upon a solemn
embassy to the pope, and many other such things ; which
made all men expect that more would follow of a greater
concern.

December 2Q, 1686. I went to hear the musiq of the Italians
in the New Chapel, now first open’d publickly at Whitehall
for the Popish service. . . . The throne where the King
and Queene sit is very glorious, in a closet above, just
opposite to the altar. Here we saw the Bishop in his mitre
and rich copes, with 6 or 7 Jesuits and others in rich copes,
sumptuously habited, often taking off and putting on the
Bishop’s mitre, who satte in a chair with arms pontificaly,
was ador’d and cens’d by 3 Jesuits in their copes; then he
went to the altar and made divers cringes, then censing the
images and glorious tabernacle plac’d on the altar, and now
and then changing place : the crosier which was of silver
was put into his hand with a world of mysterious ceremony,
the musiq playing with singing. I could not have believed
I should ever have seene such things in the King of Eng-
land’s Palace, after it had pleas’d God to enlighten this
Nation; but owr greate sin has, for the present, eclips’d the
blessing, which I hope He will in mercy and his good time
restore to its purity.

This chapter on the long struggle between the Stuarts
and the English nation as represented in the Parliament
may appropriately close with some extracts from the
celebrated Declaration of Right presented to William and
Mary in February, 1689.^

1 This document is commonly known as “ The Bill of Rights,” for
it was under that title that it was reenacted in December of the same
year, 1689, and is included in the statutes of the realm in the form here
given.

Struggle for Constitutional Government 261

Whereas the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons
assembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully, freely representing
all the estates of the people of this realm, did upon the thir-
teenth day of February, in the year of our Lord 1688,^ pre-
sent unto their Majesties, then called and known by the
names and style of William and Mary, prince and princess
of Orange, being present in their proper persons, a certain
declaration in writing made by the said lords and commons
in the words following, viz. :

Whereas the late King James II, by the assistance of
diverse evil counselors, judges, and ministers employed by
him, did endeavor to subvert and extirpate the Protestant
religion and the laws and liberties of this kingdom :

1. By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with
and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without
consent of Parliament.

2. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates,
for humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the
same assumed power.

3. By issuing and causing to be executed a commission
under the Great Seal for erecting a court, called the “ Court
of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes.”

4. By levying money for and to the use of the crown, by
pretense of prerogative, for other time and in other manner
than the same was granted by Parliament.

5. By raising and keeping a standing army within this
kingdom in time of peace, without consent of Parliament,
and quartering soldiers contrary to law.

6. By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to
be disarmed, at the same time when papists were both armed
and employed contrary to law.

7. By violating the freedom of election of members to
serve in Parliament.

^ February, 1688, would, according to our habit of beginning the
year on January i, fall in 1689. Until 1751, when Protestant England
tardily accepted the salutary reform of the calendar first recommended
in 1582 by Gregory XIII, the year was regarded in that country as
beginning March 25.

331. Ex-
tracts from
the Declara-
tion of
Right
(February,
1689).

Charges
against
James II.

262

Readings in Eur'opean History

8. By prosecutions in the Court of King’s Bench, for
matters and causes cognizable only in Parliament; and by
diverse other arbitrary and illegal courses.

10. And excessive bail hath been required of persons
committed in criminal cases, to elude the benefit of laws
made for the liberty of the subjects.

11. And excessive fines have been imposed; and illegal
and cruel punishments inflicted.

12. And several grants and promises made of fines and
forfeitures, before any conviction or judgment against the
persons upon whom the same were to be levied.

All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known
laws and statutes and freedom of this realm.

And whereas the said late King James II having abdicated
the government, and the throne being thereby vacant, his
Highness the prince of Orange (whom it hath pleased
Almighty God to make the glorious instrument of delivering
this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power) did (by the
advice of the lords spiritual and temporal and divers princi-
pal persons of the commons) cause letters to be written to
the lords spiritual and temporal, being Protestants; and other
letters to the several counties, cities, universities, boroughs
[for choosing representatives to a Parliament which might
vindicate and assert the ancient rights and liberties of the
nation].^ ...

Having therefore an entire confidence that his said High-
ness the prince of Orange will perfect the deliverance so far
advanced by him, and will still preserve them [Parliament]
from the violation of their rights, which they have here
asserted, and from all other attempts upon their religion,
rights, and liberties, the said lords spiritual and temporal,
and commons assembled at Westminster, do resolve that
William and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, be and

1 Here follows a statement of the rights of the people and their
representatives as against the usurpations of James II, enumerated at
the opening of the document.

Struggle for Constitutional Government 263

be declared king and queen of England, France,^ and Ire-
land, and the dominions thereunto belonging, to hold the
crown and royal dignity of the said kingdoms and dominions
to them the said prince and princess during their lives and
the life of the survivor of them ; . . . and that the oaths
hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the
oaths of allegiance and supremacy might be required by
law. . . .

I, A. B., do swear that I do from my heart abhor, detest,
and abjure, as impious and heretical, this damnable doctrine
and position that princes excommunicated or deprived by
the pope, or any authority of the see of Rome, may be
deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any other what-
soever. And I do declare that no foreign prince, person,
prelate, state, or potentate has, or ought to have, any juris-
diction, power, superiority, preeminence, or authority, eccle-
siastical or spiritual, within this realm. So help me God.

Upon which their said Majesties did accept the crown
and royal dignity of the kingdoms of England, France, and
Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, according
to the resolution and desire of the said lords and commons
contained in the said declaration. . . .

And whereas, it hath been found by experience that it is
inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant
kingdom to be governed by a popish prince or by any king
or queen marrying a papist, the said lords spiritual and
temporal, and commons, do further pray that it may be
enacted that all and every person and persons that is, are,
or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with, the
see or Church of Rome, or shall profess the popish religion,
or shall marry a papist, shall be excluded and be for-
ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the crown and
government of this realm. . . .

^ The English kings continued to include their long-lost French pos-
sessions in the list of their domains.

Exclusion of
Catholics
from the
throne.

264

Readuigs in European History

A. Refer-
ences.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Opening of the Constitutional Struggle under James I : Green,
Short History of the E7iglish People, Chapter VIII, sect. 2 ; Andrews,
History of E7tgland, pp. 329-343 ; Cheyney, A Short History of E7ig-
la7id, pp. 383-410 ; Terry, History of E7igla7td, pp. 618-642 ; Kendall,
Source Book of E7tglish History, pp. 209-219 ; Lee, Source Book of E7tg-
lish Histo7'y, pp. 335-347 ; CoLBY, Selectio7is fro7n the Sources of E7iglish
History, pp. 181-184.

The Petition of Right : Green, Chapter VIII, sect. 3 ; Cheyney,
pp. 410-418; Terry, pp. 642-650; Lee, pp. 348-352 ; Andrews,
PP- 343-348-

Personal Government of Charles I : Green, Chapter VIII, sect. 5 ;
Andrews, pp. 348-354; Cheyney, pp. 418-429; Terry, pp. 650-
668; Colby, pp. 188-193.

The Puritans : Green, Chapter VIII, sect, i ; Andrews, pp. 319-
323; Kendall, pp. 225-227.

The Work of the Long Parliament : Green, Chapter VIII, sect. 6;
Andrews, pp. 354-359 ; Cheyney, pp. 431-442 ; Terry, pp. 669-680;
Kendall, pp. 232-240.

The Civil War and Death of Charles I : Green, Chapter VIII,
s_ect. 7; Andrews, pp. 359-369; Cheyney, pp. 442-453; Terry,
pp. 681-704 ; Kendall, pp. 240-250 ; Colby, pp. 193-195.

Commonwealth and Protectorate : Green, Chapter VIII, sects. 9
and 10; Andrews, pp. 369-382; Cheyney, pp. 453-465; Terry,
PP- 705-741-

The Restoration and Ecclesiastical Settlement : Green, Chapter
IX, sect. 2 ; Andrews, pp. 381-387 ; Cheyney, pp. 466-478 ; Terry,
pp. 742-759; Kendall, pp. 265-267; Colby, pp. 203-205.

Constitutional Struggle under James II ; Green, Chapter IX, sect. 6 ;
Andrews, pp. 398-403 ; Cheyney, pp. 498-515 ; Terry, pp. 782-804 ;
Kendall, pp. 284-289 ; Colby, pp. 214-218.

Revolution of 1688 : Green, Chapter IX, sect. 7 ; Andrews,
pp. 404-412; Kendall, pp. 289-297; Colby, pp. 219-223.

Gardiner, The First Two Stuarts a7td The Puritan Revol7itio7i; AlRY,
The E7iglish Restoratio7i a7id Louis XIV to i68g ; Hale, Fall of the
Stuarts a7id Wester7i Europe. These little volumes in the Epochs of
Modern History Series form a valuable short history of the Stuart
period, with full reference to foreign affairs.

Struggle for Constitutional Government 265

Gooch, History of English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Cen-
tury, and Figgis, The Theory of the Divine Right of Kings, are useful
summaries of opposing political theories.

Firth, Cromwell, 1900 (Heroes of the Nations Series). The most
scholarly short life of Cromwell. The lives of Cromwell by Harrison,
Morley, and Roosevelt are sympathetic apologies, but are worth
reading.

Taylor, England under Charles If i66o-i6j8, in English History
by Contemporary Writers, edited by Professor F. York Powell ; Figgis,
English History Illustrated fro7ii Original Sources, i66o-iyig (1902), in
the series edited by Warner. Two small source books containing a
variety of illustrative materials.

Hutton, The English Church from the Accession of Charles I to the
Death of Anne, igoj. A scholarly work, with useful bibliographies
attached to each chapter.

For the lives of Pym, Hampden, Laud, Strafford, and other great men
of the time, the student should consult the Dictionary of Hational
Biography, which gives extensive bibliographies.

The fullest and most judicial account of the first half of the seven-
teenth century is to be found in the works of the late S. R. Gardiner:
History of England fro7u the Accessio7i of fa//ies I to the Outbreak of the
Civil War, 10. vols., 1900; History of the Great Civil War, i642~i64g,
4 vols., 1897-1898 ; History of the Com7)ionwealth a7id Protectorate, ib4g-
i6p6, 3 vols.

Ranke, History of Engla7id, Prhcipally i7i the Seventee7ith Cesitury,
6 vols., 1875. Especially valuable for foreign, Scotch, and Irish rela-
tions. Volume VI contains a criticism of some important sources and
a number of illustrative extracts.

Shaw, A History of the E7tglish Church dttring the Civil War and
the Co7nmo7iwealth, 1640-1661, 2 vols., 1900. A sympathetic but schol-
arly account. Masson, The Life of foh7i Milton, 6 vols., 1858 sqq. The
Catholic point of view is fairly represented in Lingard’s History of
E7igla7id.

Gardiner, Cro77iweir s Place m History, 1896, and Cro77iwell, 1901,
contain the mature views of tbe author. Carlyle edited in his inimitable
fashion the letters and speeches of Cromwell. New edition by Lomas,
with an introduction by Professor Firth, 3 vols., 1904. Stainer,
Speeches of Oliver Cro7nwell, 1644-16^8. Critical and exhaustive.

Prothero, Statutes and Co7istitutio7ial Docu77ie7its, ippg-i62p ; Gar-
diner, Constitutio7ial Docu7ne7its of the ^ Purita7i Revolutio7i, edition of

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

Religious

history.

Cromwellian

materials.

Handy col-
lections of
sources.

266

Readings m European Histoiy

Great col-
lections of
sources.

Diaries, me-
moirs, and
histories.

1899; Robertson, Select Statutes, Cases, and Documents, 1660-18^2,
1904. These three volumes contain the leading documents of the seven-
teenth century and are indispensable for the student of constitutional
history.

In addition to the statutes and calendars mentioned above, p. 155,
there are several large collections of materials, of vphich the following
are the most important.

Rushworth, Historical Collection, 3 vols., 7 parts, 1659. Contains
leading documents and speeches, supplemented by notes by the editor, a
barrister in the employ of the Long Parliament.

Thurloe, a Collection of the State Papers of fohn Thurloe, edited
by Birch, 7 vols., 1742. Contains letters, dispatches, and a variety of
papers interspersed with comments by Thurloe, secretary to the Council
of State and the two Protectors.

SCOBELL, Collection of Acts and Ordinances (1640-1656), 2 vols., 1658.
Indispensable for the official acts of the revolutionary period.

COBBETT, Parliamentary History of England, 36 vols. The first five
volumes contain a record of parliamentary proceedings during the seven-
teenth century.

Clarke Papers, 4 vols., Camden Society. Edited with a remarkable
introduction by Professor Firth. Of special importance for the political
doings of the leaders of the army at the most critical period.

The chronicle has now practically disappeared as a source, and its
place has been taken by innumerable diaries, memoirs, histories, trac-
tates, and private papers. The pamphlets number tens of thousands.

Cl.ARENDON, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in Eng-
land, edited by Macray, 6 vols., 1888. A monumental work by the
famous royalist. Contains full accounts of the important events and
striking characterizations of contemporaries, but is marred by bitter
partisanship.

Ludlow (i6i7(?)-i693), Memoirs, 2 vols., 1894, edited by Firth. A
valuable work by a strong sympathizer with the republicans and levelers.
Often heavy and sometimes inaccurate.

Wallington (1598-1658), Historical Notices, 2 vols., 1869, edited
by Webb. Valuable largely for the insight afforded into the mental
attitude of a lower-class Puritan.

Hutchinson, Life of Colonel Hutchinson, 2 vols., edited by Firth.
A remarkable account of a cultured Puritan.

Evelyn (1620-1706), Diary a7td Correspo>idence, edited by Bray and
Wheatley, 4 vols., 1879. Interesting glimpses of many aspects of English
life, by a versatile royalist.

Struggle for Constitutional Government 267

Pepys (1633-1703), Diary, fullest edition by Wheatley, 8 vols.,
1893 sqq. Covers ten years, 1659-1669. Entertaining tales by a con-
vivial but efficient public official.

Burnet (1643-1715), History of My Own Thne, edited by Airy,
2 vols., with a supplementary volume, 1897. Though colored by Whig
sympathies, this is an honest work. The character sketches are inter-
esting and valuable.

The Works of Sir William Temple, 4 vols., 1757. Useful for English
and foreign affairs during the latter part of the seventeenth century.

Valuable material is to be found in the works of James I and Charles I.^
The advanced student should also be familiar with the extensive publi-
cations of the Camden Society, the Fairfax, Marchmont, Shaftesbury,
Shrewsbury, and Clarendon papers and correspondence. Carte’s collec-
tion of letters, Maseres’ Select Tracts, Howell’s State Trials, and the
Harleian Miscellany.

1 The Eikon Basilike, a small book which appeared shortly after the death of
Charles I and purported to be from his pen, was really written by Dr. Gauden.
It was accepted as authentic and ran through innumerable editions. Pretending
to reveal the profound spiritual nature of the king, it did much to establish the
conception of Charles I as a martyr to Puritan brutality. See Gardiner,
History of the Great Civil War, Vol. IV, p. 325.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV

I. Richelieu and his Policy of strengthening
THE Kingship

Richelieu was evidently very desirous to leave to pos-
terity a full account of his deeds and a complete justifica-
tion of his policy. He undertook to collect material for
an elaborate history of the reign of Louis XIII, but fear-
ing that his frail constitution would never permit him
to complete the work, he conceived it to be his duty
to leave some statement, at least of the most needed re-
forms, as a guide for the king when his minister should
be dead. In this way Richelieu’s famous “Political Tes-
tament ” originated. It opens as follows :

332. Riche-
lieu’s ac-
count of the
condition of
France when
he became
minister
in 1624.

At the time when your Majesty resolved to admit me
both to your council and to an important place in your con-
fidence for the direction of your affairs, I may say that the
Huguenots shared the state with you ; that the nobles con-
ducted themselves as if they were not your subjects, and the
most powerful governors of the provinces as if they were
sovereign in their offices.

I may say that the bad example of all of these was so
injurious to this realm that even the best regulated parle-
ments ^ were affected by it, and endeavored, in certain cases,
to diminish your royal authority as far as they were able in
order to stretch their own powers beyond the limits of reason.

I may say that every one measured his own merit by his
audacity ; that in place of estimating the benefits which they

1 The higher law courts.
268

The Ascendency of France under Louis XIV 269

received from your Majesty at their proper worth, all valued
them only in so far as they satisfied the extravagant demands
of their imagination ; that the most arrogant were held to be
the wisest, and found themselves the most prosperous,

I may also say that the foreign alliances were unfortunate,
individual interests being preferred to those of the public ;
in a word, the dignity of the royal majesty was so disparaged,
and so different from what it should be, owing to the mal-
feasance of those who conducted your affairs, that it was
almost impossible to perceive its existence.

It was impossible, without losing all, to tolerate longer
the conduct of those to whom your Majesty had intrusted
the- helm of state ; and, on the other hand, everything could
not be changed at once without violating the laws of pru-
dence, which do not permit the abrupt passing from one
extreme to another.

The sad state of your affairs seemed to force you to hasty
decisions, without permitting a choice of time or of means ;
and yet it was necessary to make a choice of both, in order
to profit by the change which necessity demanded from your
prudence.

Thoughtful observers did not think that it would be pos-
sible to escape all the rocks in so tempestuous a period ;
the court was full of people who censured the temerity of
those who wished to undertake a reform ; all well knew that
princes are quick to impute to those who are near them the
bad outcome of the undertakings upon which they have been
well advised; few people consequently expected good results
from the change which it was announced that I wished to
make, and many believed my fall assured even before your
Majesty had elevated me.

Notwithstanding these difficulties which I represented to
your Majesty, knowing how much kings may do when they
make good use of their power, I ventured to promise you,
with confidence, that you would soon get control of your
state, and that in a short time your prudence, your cour-
age, and the benediction of God would give a new aspect to
the realm.

270

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333. Edict
of 1626
ordering the
demolition of
the feudal
castles in
France.

I promised your Majesty to employ all my industry and
all the authority which it should please you to give me to
ruin the Huguenot party, to abase the pride of the nobles,
to bring back all your subjects to their duty, and to ele-
vate your name among foreign nations to the point where it
belongs.

Two years after Richelieu became minister the king
issued an edict ordering the destruction of all the for-
tresses in the interior of the kingdom, in which the
unruly nobles had been wont to defy the royal power.

Whereas formerly the assemblies of the estates of this
realm and those of notable persons chosen to give advice
to ourselves, and to the late king, our very honorable lord
and father, on important affairs of this realm, and likewise
the assembly of the estates of the province of Brittany held
by us in the year 1614, have repeatedly requested and very
humbly supplicated our said lord and father and ourselves
to cause the demolition of many strongholds in divers places
of this realm, which, being neither on hostile frontiers nor
in important passes or places, only serve to augment our
expenses by the maintenance of useless garrisons, and also
serve as retreats for divers persons who on the least provoca-
tion disturb the provinces where they are located ; . . .

For these reasons, we announce, declare, ordain, and will
that all the strongholds, either towns or castles, which are
in the interior of our realm or provinces of the same, not
situated in places of importance either for frontier defense
or other considerations of weight, shall be razed and demol-
ished ; even ancient walls shall be destroyed so far as it
shall be deemed necessary for the well-being and repose of
our subjects and the security of this state, so that our said
subjects henceforth need not fear that the said places will
cause them any inconvenience, and so that we shall be freed
from the expense of supporting garrisons in them.

Richelieu was much interested in the encouragement
of science, art, and literature. The French Academy,

The Ascendency of France under Louis XIV 271

which he induced the king to establish by the following
order, had begun with the informal conference of a few
men of letters, who met at one another’s houses.

When God called us to the headship of the state we
cherished the purpose not only of putting an end to the
disorders caused by the civil wars which had so long dis-
tracted the realm, but we also aimed to adorn the state with
all the ornaments appropriate to the oldest and most illus-
trious of existing monarchies. Although we have labored
without intermission to realize this purpose, it has been
impossible hitherto fully to accomplish it. . . . [But now]
the confusion has at last given way to good order, which we
have reestablished by the best of all means, namely, by
reviving commerce, enforcing military discipline in our
armies, adjusting the taxes, and checking luxury. Every
one is aware of the part that our very dear and beloved
cousin,^ the cardinal, duke of Richelieu, has had in the
accomplishment of all these things.

Consequently when we communicated our intention to
him, he represented to us that one of the most glorious
proofs of the happiness of a realm is that the sciences and
arts flourish within it, and that letters as well as arms are
held in esteem, since these constitute one of the chief orna-
ments of a powerful state ; that, after so many memorable
exploits, we had now only to add the agreeable to the
essential, and to adorn the useful. He believed that we
could not do better than to commence with the most noble
of all arts, namely, eloquence. The French language, which
has suffered much hitherto from neglect on the part of those
who might have rendered it the most perfect of modern
tongues, is now more capable than ever of taking its high
place, owing to the great number of persons who possess a
special knowledge of the advantages which it enjoys and who
can augment these advantages. The cardinal informed us
that, with a view of establishing fixed rules for the language,

1 A term of respect generally reserved by the French kings for their
fellow monarchs and royal relatives.

334. Letters
patent
establishing
the French
Academy
in 1635.

Importance
of cultivating
the French
language.

2/2 Readmgs in European History

he had arranged meetings of scholars whose decisions in
these matters had met with his hearty approval, and that
in order to put these decisions into execution and render
the French language not only elegant but capable of treating
all the arts and sciences, it would only be necessary to per-
petuate these gatherings. This could be done with great
advantage should it please us to sanction them, to permit
rules and regulations to be drawn up for the order of pro-
cedure to be observed, and to reward those who compose the
association by some honorable marks of our favor.

For these reasons, and in view of the advantages which
our subjects may derive from the said meetings, acceding
to the desires of our said cousin :

We do permit, by our special favor, power, and royal
authority, and do authorize and approve by these presents,
signed by our hand, the said assemblies and conferences.
We will that they continue hereafter in our good city of
Paris, under the name of the French Academy ; that our said
cousin shall be designated as its head and protector ; that
the number of members be limited to forty persons. *. . .

II. Kings “by the Grace of God”

It is especially difficult with our modern democratic
notions to understand the views and sentiments of those
who have regarded obedience to the king, however per-
verse and licentious he might be, as a sacred obligation.
Nowhere is the divine nature of the kingly power set
forth with more eloquence and ardor than in the work of
the distinguished prelate, orator, and theologian, Bossuet,
whom Louis XIV chose as the preceptor of his son, the
dauphin (1670-1681). His treatise on Politics drawn
from the Very Words of Holy Scripture was prepared
with a view of giving the heir to the -French throne a
proper idea both of his lofty position and of his heavy
responsibilities. No one can read this work without

The Ascendency of France under Louis XIV 273

being profoundly impressed with the irresistible appeal
which kingship, as Bossuet represents it, must make to
a mind that looked to the Scriptures for its theories of
government.

The essential characteristics of royalty, Bossuet ex-
plains, are, first, that it is sacred ; second, paternal ;
third, absolute; and fourth, subject to reason. He then
continues as follows :

We have already seen that all power is of God.^ The
ruler, adds St. Paul, “ is the rtiinister of God to thee for
good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he
beareth not the sword in vain : for he is the minister of God,
a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” ^
Rulers then act as the ministers of God and as his lieutenants
on earth. It is through them that God exercises his empire.
Think ye “ to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the
hand of the sons of David ”? ^ Consequently, as we have
seen, the royal throne is not the throne of a man, but the
throne of God himself. The Lord “ hath chosen Solomon
my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord
over Israel.”^ And again, “Solomon sat on the throne of
the Lord.” ®

Moreover, that no one may assume that the Israelites
were peculiar in having kings over them who v/ere estab-
lished by God, note what is said in Ecclesiasticus : “ God
has given to every people its ruler, and Israel is manifestly
reserved to him.” ® He therefore governs all peoples and
gives them their kings, although he governed Israel in a
more intimate and obvious manner.

335. Ex-
tracts from
Bossuet’s
work on
kingship.

Kingship
a divine
institution.

1 Referring to St. Paul’s words (Romans xiii. i, 2): “Let every soul
be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God;
the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God : and they that resist shall
receive to themselves damnation.”

2 See Rom. xiii. 1-7. 5 j Chron. xxix. 23.

® 2 Chron. xiii. 8. Ecclesiasticus xvii. 14, 15.

^ I Chron. xxviii. 5.

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Readings in European Histoiy

Warning to
kings to ex-
ercise their
power in the
fear of the
Lord.

It appears from all this that the person of the king
is sacred, and that to attack him in any way is sacri-
lege. God has the kings anointed by his prophets with the
holy unction in like manner as he has bishops and altars
anointed. But even without the external application in thus
being anointed, they are by their very office the represent-
atives of the divine majesty deputed by Providence for
the execution of his purposes. Accordingly God calls Cyrus
his anointed. “Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before
him.”^ . . . Kings should be guarded as holy things, and
whosoever neglects to protect them is worthy of death. . . .

There is something religious in the respect accorded to a
prince. The service of God and the respect for kings are
bound together. St. Peter unites these two duties when he
says, “ Fear God. Honour the king.” ^ . . .

But kings, although theip power comes from on high, as
has been said, should not regard themselves as masters of
that power to use it at their pleasure ; . . . they must employ
it with fear and self-restraint, as a thing coming from God
and of which God will demand an account. “ Hear, O kings,
and take heed, understand, judges of the earth, lend your
ears, ye who hold the peoples under your sway, and delight
to see the multitude that surround you. It is God who gives
you the power. Your strength comes from the Most High,
who will question your works and penetrate the depths of
your thoughts, for, being ministers of his kingdom, ye have
not given righteous judgments nor have ye walked according
to his will. He will straightway appear to you in a terrible
manner, for to those who command is the heaviest punish-
ment reserved. The humble and the weak shall receive
mercy, but the mighty shall be mightily tormented. For God
fears not the power of any one, because he made both great
and small and he has care for both.” ® . . .

Kings should tremble then as they use the power God
has granted them ; and let them think how horrible is the

^ Isa. xlv. I.

I Pet. ii. 17.

Book of Wisdom vi. 2 sqq.

The Ascendency of France under Louis XIV 275

sacrilege if they use for evil a power which comes from God.
We behold kings seated upon the throne of the Lord, bear-
ing in their hand the sword which God himself has given
them. What profanation, what arrogance, for the unjust king
to sit on God’s throne to render decrees contrary to his laws
and to use the sword which God has put in his hand for
deeds of violence and to slay his children ! . . .

The royal power is absolute. With the aim of making this
truth hateful and insufferable, many writers have tried to
confound absolute government with arbitrary government.
But no two things could be more unlike, as we shall show
when we come to speak of justice.

The prince need render account of his acts to no one.
“I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that
in regard of the oath of God. Be not hasty to go out of his
sight : stand not on an evil thing for he doeth whatsoever
pleaseth him. Where the word of a king is, there is power :
and who may say unto him, What doest thou ? Whoso
keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing.” ^ With-
out this absolute authority the king could neither do good
nor repress evil. It is necessary that his power be such that
no one can hope to escape him, and, finally, the only pro-
tection of individuals against the public authority should
be their innocence. This conforms with the teaching of
St. Paul : “Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do
that which is good.” ^

I do not call majesty that pomp which surrounds kings
or that exterior magnificence which dazzles the vulgar.
That is but the reflection of majesty and not majesty itself.
Majesty is the image of the grandeur of God in the prince.

God is infinite, God is all. The prince, as prince, is not
regarded as a private person : he is a public personage, all
the state is in him ; the will of all the people is included in
his. As all perfection and all strength are united in God,
so all the power of individuals is united in the person of the
prince. What grandeur that a single man should embody so
much !

The royal
power is
absolute

The real
grandeur of
kings.

The whole
state em-
bodied in
the prince.

1 Ecclesiasticus viii. 2-5.

2 Rom. xiii. 3.

Summary.

Yet kings are
but mortal.

376 Readings in European History

The power of God makes itself felt in a moment from one
extremity of the earth to another. Royal power works at the
same time throughout all the realm. It holds all the realm
in position, as God holds the earth. Should God withdraw
his hand, the earth would fall to pieces ; should the king’s
authority cease in the realm, all would be in confusion.

Look at the prince in his cabinet. Thence go out the
orders which cause the magistrates and the captains, the
citizens and the soldiers, the provinces and the armies on
land and on sea, to work in concert. He is the image of
God, who, seated on his throne high in the heavens, makes
all nature move. . . .

Finally, let us put together the things so great and so
august which we have said about royal authority. Behold
an immense people united in a single person ; behold this
holy power, paternal and absolute ; behold the secret cause
which governs the whole body of the state, contained in a
single head: you see the image of God in the king, and you
have the idea of royal majesty. God is holiness itself, good-
ness itself, and power itself. In these things lies the majesty
of God. In the image of these things lies the majesty of the
prince.

So great is this majesty that it cannot reside in the prince
as in its source ; it is borrowed from God, who gives it to
him for the- good of the people, for whom it is good to be
checked by a superior force. Something of divinity itself is
attached to princes and inspires fear in the people. The
king should not forget this. “ I have said,” — it is God who
speaks, — “I have said. Ye are gods; and all of you are
children of the Most High. But ye shall die like men, and
fall like one of the princes.”^ “ I have said. Ye are gods
that is to say, you have in your authority, and you bear on
your forehead, a divine imprint. “ You are the children of
the Most High”; it is he who has established your power
for the good of mankind. But, O gods of flesh and blood,
gods of clay and dust, “ye shall die like men, and fall like

Ps. Ixxxii. 6, 7.

The Ascendency of France' under Louis XIV 277

princes.” Grandeur separates men for a little time, but a
common fall makes them all equal at the end.

O kings, exercise your power then boldly, for it is divine
and salutary for human kind, but exercise it with humility.
You are endowed with it from without. At bottom it leaves
you feeble, it leaves you mortal, it leaves you sinners, and
charges you before God with a very heavy account.

III. Colbert and his Work

The finances of France were in an almost chronic
state of disorder. It was financial difficulties which
were finally to prove the immediate cause of the great
French Revolution in 1789. The picture which Colbert
gives of the situation before he became minister is, on
the whole, a fair account of the conditions which pre-
vailed during the succeeding century and which we find
on the eve of the French Revolution.

As we have had only examples of want and necessity in
our finances since the death of Henry IV, it will be well to
determine how it has come about that for so long a time
there has not been, if not abundance, at least a tolerably
satisfactory income, — something else than dearth and desti-
tution, some approximation of equality between output and
revenue. . . .

During the twenty years immediately following the death
of Henry IV, the superintendents of the finances either
gorged themselves with wealth, — all the other financial
officials following their example, — or, if they were upright
men, they did not have sufficient penetration to perceive
the abuses, malfeasance, thefts, and waste which went on
under cover of their authority, and even under their eyes,
so that the state was always in need. It even happened
that the incompetency of the superintendents was com-
monly more prejudicial to the state and the people than their
personal thefts, seeing that there never was a time when the

336. Col-
bert’s ac-
count of the
financial
disorders.

Premiums
to those who
advanced
money to the
government.

278 Readings in European History

superintendents appeared to be more honest than from
1616 to 1630. . . .

But since the expiration of these twenty years the change
in the character of the persons chosen to fill this post has
not altered the fate of the state ; on the contrary, the most
pernicious maxims took root in their minds and controlled
their conduct and, in the course of time, assumed such
strength that they have come to be considered fixed and
unquestionable, and it seems to be assumed that they are
not endangering the state. These maxims were :

This realm can exist only in confusion and disorder ;

The secret of finance consists solely in making and un-
making, in bestowing emoluments and new honors on old
officers, in creating new offices of every kind and character,
in alienating rights and sources of income, withdrawing these
and then reestablishing them once more ;

Causing the payment of taxes on all kinds of pretexts ;

Increasing the indirect taxes and tailles^ alienating rights,
then reducing or withdrawing them to alienate them anew ;

Consuming for current expenses the ordinary and extraor-
dinary receipts of the two years following ;

Giving prodigious discounts for advances in cash, not
only in raising exceptional revenue, but even in the collec-
tion of the ordinary revenue, more than half of which is
consumed by discounts and interest on money advanced ;

Giving the opportunity to the treasurers of the public
funds,. other financial agents, and farmers of the revenue^ of
making immense profits; maintaining that the grandeur of
the state consists in having a small number of persons who
can furnish prodigious sums and astonish foreign princes ;

Neglecting the farmed taxes ^ and general receipts which
constitute the ordinary revenues, in order to apply themselves
actively to extraordinary sources of income.

All these pernicious maxims were so firmly established
that the most able and enlightened persons connected with

1 Most of the indirect taxes were collected for the French govern-
ment by a company of capitalists called the “ farmers ” of the revenue.
See below, p. 361.

The Ascendency of France under Louis XIV 279

the government of the state thought that in a matter so deli-
cate it would be more dangerous to try a new policy than to
submit to the existing evils.

It is not astonishing that superintendents of finance regu-
lated their conduct by these maxims, since they found in
them two considerable advantages : the first was that in this
confusion they enjoyed plenty of opportunity to enrich them-
selves and to make important gifts to their relatives and
friends and to all the persons of the court whose good offices
they had need of in order to maintain themselves in all the
disorder; and the second, that they were persuaded that
this policy rendered their services necessary and that no
resolution to remove them could be considered.

A letter addressed by Louis XIV to the town officers
and people of Marseilles in 1664, shortly after Colbert
had become the financial head of the realm, clearly shows
the active means which the new minister proposed to
take to promote the material welfare of France.

Very dear and well beloved :

Considering how advantageous it would be to this realm to
reestablish its foreign and domestic commerce, ... we have
resolved to establish a council particularly devoted to com-
merce, to be held every fortnight in our presence, in which
all the interests of merchants and the means conducive to
the revival of commerce shall be considered and determined
upon, as well as all that which concerns manufactures.

We also inform you that we are setting apart, in the ex-
penses of our state, a million livres each year for the encour-
agement of manufactures and the increase of navigation, to
say nothing of the considerable sums which we cause to be
raised to supply the companies of the East and West Indies ;

That we are working constantly to abolish all the tolls
which are collected on the navigable rivers ;

That there has already been expended more than a million
livres for the repair of the public highways, to which we
shall also devote our constant attention ;

337. Com-
mercial
policy of
Colbert as
shown in a
letter of
the king’s
(August 26,
1664).

28o

Readings in Enropea7i History

That we will assist by money from our royal treasury all
those who wish to reestablish old manufactures or to under-
take new ones ;

That we are giving orders to all our ambassadors or resi-
dents at the courts of the princes, our allies, to make, in our
name, all proper efforts to cause justice to be rendered in
all cases involving our merchants, and to assure for them
entire commercial freedom ;

That we will comfortably lodge at our court each and
every merchant who has business there during all the time
that he shall be obliged to remain there, having given orders
to the grand marshal of our palace to indicate a proper
place for that purpose, which shall be called the House of
Commerce ; . . .

That all the merchants and traders by sea who purchase
vessels, or who build new ones, for traffic or commerce shall
receive from us subsidies for each ton of merchandise which
they export or import on the said voyages.

We desire, in this present letter, not only to inform you
concerning all these things, but to require you, as soon as
you have received it, to cause to be assembled all the mer-
chants and traders of your town of Marseilles, and explain
to them very particularly our intentions in all matters men-
tioned above, in order that, being informed of the favorable
treatment which we desire to give them, they may be the
more desirous of applying themselves to commerce. Let
them, understand that for everything that concerns the wel-
fare and advantage of the same they are to address them-
selves to Sieur Colbert. , , .

IV, The Ascendency of France in 1671

Sir William Temple, an able English diplomat and man
of letters, gives a striking picture of the flourishing con-
dition of France during the first half of Louis XIV’s reign.

The crown of France, considered in the extent of country,
in the number of people, in the riches of commodities, in

The Ascendejicy of France under Loids XIV 281

the revenues of the king, the greatness of the land forces
now on foot, and the growth of those at sea (within these
two years past), the number and bravery of their officers,
the conduct of their ministers, and chiefly in the genius of
their present king ; a prince of great aspiring thoughts, un-
wearied application to whatever is in pursuit, severe in the
institution and preservation of order and discipline ; in the
main a manager of his treasure and yet bountiful from his
own motions wherever he intends the marks of favour and
discerns particular merit ; to this, in the flower of his age,
at the head of all his armies, and hitherto unfoiled in any of
his attempts either at home or abroad : I say, considered in
all these circumstances, France may appear to be designed
for greater achievements in empires than have been seen in
Christendom since that of Charlemagne.

The present greatness of this crown may be chiefly derived
from the fortune it has had of two great ministers [Richelieu
and Mazarin] succeeding one another, between two great
kings, Henry IV and this present prince ; so as during the
course of one unactive life and of a long minority that crown
gained a great deal of ground both at home and abroad,
instead of losing it, which is the common fate of kingdoms
upon those occasions.

The latter greatness of this crown began in the time of
Lewis XI by the spoils of the house of Burgundy and the
divisions of the princes, which gave that king the heart of
attempting to bring the government (as he called it) hors de
page; [the monarchs] being before controlled by their princes,
and restrained by their states,^ and in point of revenue kept
within the bounds of the king’s desmesnes and the subjects’
voluntary contributions.

’Tis not here necessary to observe by what difficulties
and dangers to the crown this design of Lewis was pursued
by many succeeding kings, — like a great stone forced up
a hill, and, upon every slacking of either strength or care,
rolling a great way back, often to the very bottom of the

338. Sir
William
Temple’s
account of
France
in 1671.

Important
services of
Richelieu
and Mazarin.

1 I.e. estates.

282

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The common
lot in France.

hill, and sometimes with the destruction of those that forced
it on, — till the time of Cardinal Richelieu. It was in this
great minister most to be admired that, finding the regency
shaken by the factions of so many great ones within, and
awed by the terror of the Spanish greatness without, he
durst resolve to look them both in the face, and begin a war
by the course of which for so many years (being pursued by
Mazarin till the year 1660) the crown of France grew to be
powerfully armed ; the peasants were accustomed to pay-
ments (which could have seemed necessary only by a war,
and which none but a successful one could have helped to
digest) and grew heartless as they grew poor. The princes
were sometimes satisfied with commands of the army, some-
times mortified and suppressed by the absoluteness or ad-
dresses of the ministry. The most boiling blood of the
nobility and gentry was let out in so long a war, or wasted
with age and exercise ; at last it ended at the Pyrenees in
a peace and the match so advantageous to France as the
reputation of them contributed much to the authority of the
young king, who was bred up in the councils and served by
the tried instruments of the former ministry; but most of all,
advantaged by his own personal qualities, fit to make him
obeyed, grew absolute master of the factions of the great
men, as well as the purses of his people. . . .

If there were any certain height where the flights of
power and ambition used to end, one might imagine that
the interest of France were but to conserve its present
greatness, so feared by its neighbours and so glorious in the
world ; but besides that the motions and desires of human
minds are endless, it may perhaps be necessary for France
(from respects within) to have some war or other in pursuit
abroad which may amuse the nation, and keep them from
reflecting upon their condition at home, hard and uneasy to
all but such as are in charge or in pay from the court. I do
not say miserable (the term usually given it), because no
condition is so but to him that esteems it so ; and if a paisan
of France thinks of no more than his coarse bread and
his onions, his canvass cloaths, and wooden shoes, labours

The Ascendency of France under Louis XIV 283

contentedly on working days, and dances or plays merrily on
holy-days ; he may, for aught I know, live as well as a boor
of Holland, who is either weary of his very ease or whose
cares of growing still richer and richer waste his life in toils
on land, or dangers at sea, and perhaps fool him so far as
to make him enjoy less of all kind in his riches than the
other in his poverty.

V. Louis XIV and his Court

In 1671, when Louis XIV decided upon war with
Holland, he honored his commander, the prince of
Conde, by a visit to him at Chantilly, v^^here a grand
fete was given in the forest, for which elaborate prepa-
rations were made by Vatel, the prince of cooks. The
following spirited account of the occasion and of the
cook’s sad end is from a letter of Madame de Sevigne’s,
whose charming correspondence with her daughter and
friends constitutes an important source for the period
and for the life at Louis’ court.

It is Sunday, the 26th of April ; this letter will not go till
Wednesday. It is not really a letter, but an account, which
Moreuil has just given me for your benefit, of what happened
at Chantilly concerning Vatel. I wrote you on Friday that
he had stabbed himself ; here is the story in detail.

The promenade, the collation in a spot carpeted with jon-
quils, — all was going to perfection. Supper came ; the roast
failed at one or two tables on account of a number of unex-
pected guests. This upset Vatel. He said several times,
“ My honor is lost ; this is a humiliation that I cannot en-
dure,” To Gourville he said, “My head is swimming; I
have not slept for twelve nights ; help me to give my
orders.” Gourville consoled him as best he could, but the
roast which had failed, not at the king’s, but at the twenty-
fifth table, haunted his mind. Gourville told Monsieur le
Prince about it, and Monsieur le Prince went up to Vatel in

339. How
Louis and
his court
were enter-
tained by
the prince
of Conde at
Chantilly
(1671).

284

Readings in Em'opean History

his own room and said to him, “Vatel, all goes well; there
never was anything so beautiful as the king’s supper.” He
answered, “ Monseigneur, your goodness overwhelms me. I
know that the roast failed at two tables.” “ Nothing of the
sort,” said Monsieur le Prince. “ Do not disturb yourself, —
all is well.”

Midnight comes. The fireworks do not succeed on account
of a cloud that overspreads them (they cost sixteen thousand
francs). At four o’clock in the morning Vatel is wandering
about all over the place. Everything is asleep. He meets a
small purveyor with two loads of fish and asks him, “ Is this
all.?” “Yes, sir.” The man did not know that Vatel had
sent to all the seaport towns in France. Vatel waits some
time, but the other purveyors do not arrive ; he gets excited ;
he thinks that there will be no more fish. He finds Gourville
and says to him, “ Sir, I shall not be able to survive this dis-
grace.” Gourville only laughs at him. Then Vatel goes up
to his own room, puts his sword against the door, and runs
it through his heart, but only at the third thrust, for he gave
himself two wounds which were not mortal. He falls dead.

Meanwhile the fish is coming in from every side, and
people are seeking for Vatel to distribute it. They go to
his room, they knock, they burst open the door, they find
him lying bathed in his blood. They send for Monsieur le
Prince, who is in utter despair. Monsieur le Due bursts into
tears ; it was upon Vatel that his whole journey to Burgundy
depended. Monsieur le Prince informed the king, very sadly ;
they agreed that it all came from Vatel’s having his own
code of honor, and they praised his courage highly even
while they blamed him. The king said that for five years he
had delayed his coming because he knew the extreme trouble
his visit would cause. He said to Monsieur le Prince that
he ought not to have but two tables and not burden himself
with the responsibility for everybody, and that he would not
permit Monsieur le Prince to do so again ; but it was too
late for poor Vatel.

Gourville, however, tried to repair the loss of Vatel, and
did repair it. The dinner was excellent ; so was the luncheon.

The Asceiidency of Fimice tmder Loins XIV 285

They supped, they walked, they played, they hunted. The
scent of jonquils was everywhere ; it was all enchanting.

Saint-Simon, the king of memoir writers, when seventy-
two years old, wrote an account of the first three Bourbon
kings. The following passage from this work sums up
the characteristics of Louis XIV, which are exhibited in
greater detail throughout Saint-Simon’s Memoirs.

The king’s great qualities shone more brilliantly by reason
of an exterior so unique and incomparable as to lend infinite
distinction to his slightest actions ; the very figure of a hero,
so impregnated with a natural but most imposing majesty
that it appeared even in his most insignificant gestures and
movements, without arrogance but with simple gravity; pro-
portions such as a sculptor would choose to model; a perfect
countenance and the grandest air and mien ever vouchsafed
to man ; all these advantages enhanced by a natural grace
which enveloped all his actions with a singular charm which
has never perhaps been equaled. He was as dignified and
majestic in his dressing gown as when dressed in robes of
state, or on horseback at the head of his troops.

He excelled in all sorts of exercise and liked to have
every facility for it. No fatigue nor stress of weather made
any impression on that heroic figure and bearing ; drenched
with rain or snow, pierced with cold, bathed in sweat or
covered with dust, he was always the same. I have often
observed with admiration that except in the most extreme
and exceptional weather nothing prevented his spending
considerable time out of doors every day.

A voice whose tones corresponded with the rest of his
person ; the ability to speak well and to listen with quick
comprehension ; much reserve of manner adjusted with ex-
actness to the quality of different persons ; a courtesy always
grave, always dignified, always distinguished, and suited to
the age, rank, and sex of each individual, and, for the ladies,
always an air of natural gallantry. So much for his exterior,
which has never been equaled nor even approached.

340. Saint
Simon’s
portrait of
Louis XIV

How Louis
spent his day.

340a. Out-
rageous
vanity of
the king.

286 Readings in En.ropean History

In whatever did not concern what he believed to be his
rightful authority and prerogative, he showed a natural kind-
ness of heart and a sense of justice which made one regret
the education, the flatteries, the artifice which resulted in
preventing him from being his real self except on the rare
occasions when he gave way to some natural impulse and
showed that, — prerogative aside, which choked and stifled
everything, — he loved truth, justice, order, reason, — that
he loved even to let himself be vanquished.

Nothing could be regulated with greater exactitude than
were his days and hours. In spite of all his variety of places,
affairs, and amusements, with an almanac and a watch one
might tell, three hundred leagues away, exactly what he was
doing. . . . Except at Marly, any man could have an oppor-
tunity to speak to him five or six times during the day ; he
listened, and almost always replied, “ I will see,” in order
not to accord or decide anything lightly. Never a reply or
a speech that would give pain ; patient to the last degree
in business and in matters of personal service ; completely
master of his face, manner, and bearing ; never giving way
to impatience or anger. If he administered reproof, it was
rarely, in few words, and never hastily. He did not lose
control of himself ten times in his whole life, and then only
with inferior persons, and not more than four or five times
seriously.

Now for the reverse of the picture :

Louis XIV’s vanity was without limit or restraint ; it
colored everything and convinced him that no one even
approached him in military talents, in plans and enterprises,
in government. Hence those pictures and inscriptions in
the gallery at Versailles which disgust every foreigner ; those
opera prologues that he himself tried to sing ; that flood of
prose and verse in his praise for which his appetite was
insatiable ; those dedications of statues copied from pagan
sculpture, and the insipid and sickening compliments that
were continually offered to him in person and which he
swallowed with unfailing relish ; hence his distaste for all

The Asce^idency of France under Louis XIV 287

merit, intelligence, education, and, most of all, for all inde-
pendence of character and sentiment in others ; his mis-
takes of judgment in matters of importance ; his familiarity
and favor reserved entirely for those to whom he felt him-
self superior in acquirements and ability; and, above every-
thing else, a jealousy of his own authority which determined
and took precedence of every other sort of justice, reason,
and consideration whatever.

VI. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)

As the culmination of a consistent policy of repression,
all the privileges of the Protestants were finally withdrawn
by annulling the Edict of Nantes.

Louis, by the grace of God king of France and Navarre, to all

present and to come, greeting :

King Henry the Great, our grandfather of glorious memory,
being desirous that the peace which he had procured for his
subjects after the grievous losses they had sustained in the
course of domestic and foreign wars, should not be troubled
on account of the R.P.R.,^ as had happened in the reigns of
the kings, his predecessors, by his edict, granted at Nantes
in the month of April, 1598, regulated the procedure to be
adopted with regard to those of the said religion, and the
places in which they might meet for public worship, estab-
lished extraordinary judges to administer justice to them,
and, in fine, provided in particular articles for whatever
could be thought necessary for maintaining the tranquillity
of his kingdom and for diminishing mutual aversion between
the members of the two religions, so as to put himself in a
better position to labor, as he had resolved to do, for the
reunion to the Church of those who had so lightly withdrawn
from it.

As the intention of the king, our grandfather, was frus-
trated by his sudden death, and as the execution of the said

1 I.e. Religion pretendue refor7nee, “ the religion called the Reformed.”
See above, p. 184 n.

341. Revo-
cation of the
Edict of
Nantes .
(October 22,
1685).

Objects of
Henry IV in
granting the
edict.

288

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Policy of
Louis XIII
and reduction
of the privi-
leges of the
Huguenots.

Policy of
Louis XIV
himself and
the alleged
conversion of
the greater
part of the
Huguenots.

edict was interrupted during the minority of the late king,
our most honored lord and father of glorious memory, by
new encroachments on the part of the adherents of the said
R.P.R., which gave occasion for their being deprived of
divers advantages accorded to them by the said edict ;
nevertheless the king, our late lord and father, in the ex-
ercise of his usual clemency, granted them yet another
edict at Nimes, in July, 1629, by means of which, tranquillity
being established anew, the said late king, animated by the
same spirit and the same zeal for religion as the king, our
said grandfather, had resolved to take advantage of this
repose to attempt to put his said pious design into execu-
tion. But foreign wars having supervened soon after, so
that the kingdom was seldom tranquil from 1635 to the
truce concluded in 1684 with the powers of Europe, nothing
more could be done for the advantage of religion beyond
diminishing the number of places for the public exercise of
the R.P.R., interdicting such places as were found estab-
lished to the prejudice of the dispositions made by the
edicts, and suppressing of the bi-partisan courts, these having
been appointed provisionally only.

God having at last permitted that our people should
enjoy perfect peace, we, no longer absorbed in protecting
them from our enemies, are able to profit by this truce
(which we have ourselves facilitated), and devote our whole
attention to the means of accomplishing the designs of our
said grandfather and father, which we have consistently kept
before us since our succession to the crown.

And now we perceive, with thankful acknowledgment of
God’s aid, that our endeavors have attained their proposed
end, inasmuch as the better and the greater part of our sub-
jects of the said R.P.R. have embraced the Catholic faith.
And since by this fact the execution of the Edict of Nantes
and of all that has ever been ordained in favor of the said
R.P.R. has been rendered nugatory, we have determined
that we can do nothing better, in order wholly to obliterate
the memory of the troubles, the confusion, and the evils
which the progress of this false religion has caused in this

The Ascendency of France under Loids XIV 289

kingdom, and which furnished occasion for the said edict
and for so many previous and subsequent edicts and dec-
larations, than entirely to revoke the said Edict of Nantes,
with the special articles granted as a sequel to it, as
well as all that has since been done in favor of the said
religion.

I. Be it known that for these causes and others us here-
unto moving, and of our certain knowledge, full power, and
royal authority, we have, by this present perpetual and
irrevocable edict, suppressed and revoked, and do suppress
and revoke, the edict of our said grandfather, given at
Nantes in April, 1598, in its whole extent, together with the
particular articles agreed upon in the month of May follow-
ing, and the letters patent issued upon the same date ; and
also the edict given at Nimes in July, 1629 ; we declare them
null and void, together with all concessions, of whatever
nature they may be, made by them as well as by other
edicts, declarations, and orders, in favor of the said persons
of the R.P.R., the which shall remain in like manner as if
they had never been granted ; and in consequence we desire,
and it is our pleasure, that all the temples of those of the
said R.P.R. situate in our kingdom, countries, territories, and

-the lordships under our crown, shall be demolished without
delay.

II. We forbid our subjects of the R.P.R. to meet any
more for the exercise of the said religion in any place or
private house, under any pretext whatever, . . .

III. We likewise forbid all noblemen, of what condition

I soever, to hold such religious exercises in their houses or
; fiefs, under penalty to be inflicted upon all our said subjects
who shall engage in the said exercises, of imprisonment and
i confiscation.

i IV. We enjoin all ministers of the said R.P.R., who do
] not choose to become converts and to embrace the Catholic,

^ apostolic, and Roman religion, to leave our kingdom and the
! territories subject to us within a fortnight of the publication
' of our present edict, without leave to reside therein beyond
that period, or, during the said fortnight, to engage in any

The Edict
of Nantes
revoked.

All Protes-
tant churches
to be de-
molished.

No Protes-
tant services
in private
houses.

All Protes-
tant minis-
ters to leave
the country
within a
fortnight.

Readings in European History

Protestant

schools

forbidden.

Children of
Protestants
to be baptized
by Catholic
priests.

Huguenots
who have
emigrated
may return
within four
months.

Huguenots
may not
leave France.

290

preaching, exhortation, or any other function, on pain of
being sent to the galleys.^ . . .

VII. We forbid private schools for the instruction of
children of the said R.P.R., and in general all things what-
ever which can be regarded as a concession of any kind in
favor of the said religion.

VIII. As for children who may be born of persons of the
said R.P.R., we desire that from henceforth they be baptized
by the parish priests. We enjoin parents to send them'to
the churches for that purpose, under penalty of five hundred
livres fine, to be increased as circumstances may demand ;
and thereafter the children shall be brought up in the Catho-
lic, apostolic, and Roman religion, which we expressly enjoin
the local magistrates to see done.

IX. And in the exercise of our clemency towards our sub-
jects of the said R.P.R. who have emigrated from our king-
dom, lands, and territories subject to us, previous to the
publication of our present edict, it is our will and pleasure
that in case of their returning within the period of four
months from the day of the said publication, they may,
and it shall be lawful for them to, again take possession
of their property, and to enjoy the same as if they had
all along remained there : on the contrary, the property
abandoned by those who, during the specified period of four
months, shall not have returned into our kingdom, lands,
and territories subject to us, shall remain and be confis-
cated in consequence of our declaration of the 20th of
August last.

X. We repeat our most express prohibition to all our
subjects of the said R.P.R., together with their wives and
children, against leaving our kingdom, lands, and territories
subject to us, or transporting their goods and effects there-
from under penalty, as respects the men, of being sent to
the galleys, and as respects the women, of imprisonment and
confiscation.

1 Articles V and VI hold out advantages — exemptions, pensions,
and promotion — to Protestant ministers who consent to turn Cathplics.

The Ascendency of France under Loids XIV 291

XI. It is our will and intention that the declarations
rendered against the relapsed shall be executed according
to their form and tenor.

XII. As for the rest, liberty is granted to the said persons
of the R.P.R., pending the time when it shall please God to
enlighten them as well as others, to remain in the cities and
places of our kingdom, lands, and territories subject to us,
and there to continue their commerce, and to enjoy their
possessions, without being subjected to molestation or hin-
drance on account of the said R.P.R., on condition of not
engaging in the exercise of the said religion, or of meeting
under pretext of prayers or religious services, of whatever
nature these may be, under the penalties above mentioned
of imprisonment and confiscation.^ This do we give in charge
to our trusty and well-beloved counselors, etc.

Given at Fontainebleau in the month of October, in the
year of grace 1685, and of our reign the forty-third.

Opinions in regard to the expediency of the revocation
of the edict naturally differed. Madame de Sevigne, the
gentlest of women but most devout of Catholics, wrote :
You have doubtless seen the edict by which the king
revokes that of Nantes. Nothing could be finer than all
its provisions. No king has done or ever will do anything
more honorable.” ^ Saint-Simon, on the other hand, gives
a somewhat lurid account of the criminal stupidity and
the fearful results of the revocation.

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, without the slight-
est pretext or necessity, and the various proscriptions that

1 In spite of this seeming toleration, the Protestants, as heretics, were
practically outlaws in France. To be outside the Catholic Church was
to be outside the state. The priests kept the records of births and
deaths and the registry of wills, and unless the Huguenots consented
to have their marriages performed by the priests their children were
regarded as illegitimate.

2 Letter of October 28, 1685, Correspondance, VII, p. 420.

Huguenots
to be un-
molested.

342. Saint-
Simon’s
angry ac-
count of the
revocation
of the Edict
of Nantes.

2Q2

Readmgs in Ew'opean History

followed it, were the fruits of a frightful plot, in which the new
spouse was one of the chief conspirators, and which depop-
ulated a quarter of the realm ; ruined its commerce ; weak-
ened it in every direction ; gave it up for a long time to the
public and avowed pillage of the dragoons ; authorized tor-
ments and punishments by which many innocent people of
both sexes were killed by thousands ; ruined a numerous
class ; tore in pieces a world of families ; armed relatives
against relatives, so as to seize their property and leave
them to die of hunger ; banished our manufactures to foreign
lands; made those lands flourish and overflow at the expense
of France, and enabled them to build new cities ; gave to
the world the spectacle of a prodigious population pro-
scribed without crime, stripped, fugitive, wandering, and
seeking shelter far from their country; sent to the galleys
nobles, rich old men, people much esteemed for their piety,
learning, and virtue, people carefully nurtured, weak, and
delicate ; — and all solely on account of religion ; in fact, to
heap up the measure of horror, filled the realm with perjury
and sacrilege, in the midst of the echoed cries of these un-
fortunate victims of error, while so many others sacrificed
their conscience to their wealth and their repose, and pur-
chased both by simulated abjuration, from which without
pause they were dragged to adore what they did not believe
in, and to receive the divine body of the Most Holy whilst
remaining persuaded that they were only eating bread which
they ought to abhor !

Such was the general abomination born of flattery and
cruelty. From torture to abjuration, and from that to com-
munion, there was often only a space of twenty-four hours ;
and executioners were the guides of the converts and their
witnesses. . . . The king received from all sides detailed
news of these conversions. It was by thousands that those
who had abjured and taken the communion were counted;
ten thousand in one place, six thousand in another, — all at
once and instantly. The king congratulated himself on his
power and his piety. He believed himself to have brought
back the days of the apostles, and attributed to himself

The Ascendency of France under Lords XIV 293

all the honor. The bishops wrote panegyrics of him; the
Jesuits made the pulpit resound with his praise. All France
was filled with horror and confusion ; and yet there was
never such triumph and joy, such boundless laudation of
the king.

VII. Opening of the War of the Spanish Succession

The marquis of Torcy (1665-1746), who was at the
head of foreign affairs during the War of the Spanish
Succession, thus describes, in his remarkable memoirs,
the opening of the conflict.

At length the event long foreseen happened. Charles II
(of Spain), sovereign of so many different dominions, died
on the I St of November in the year 1700 ; and his death in
a very little time occasioned a general combustion in Europe.

By his will, signed the 2d of October preceding, he acknowl-
edged the right of his sister, the infanta Maria Theresa, queen
of France and mother of the dauphin, as also the right of
his aunt. Queen Anna,^ and consequently that of the dauphin,
who was therefore his only heir, according to the laws of the
kingdom ; but to prevent all Europe from being alarmed at
the uniting of such extensive dominions to the crown of
France, of which the dauphin was the only presumptive
heir, Charles called the duke of Anjou, the dauphin’s second
son, to the succession, appointing him sole heir to all his

1 Namely, the wife of Louis XIII and so the dauphin’s grandmother.
The basis of the claims of France and Austria in 1700 may be seen from
the following table.

Philip HI of Spain (d. 1621)

Anna, m. Louis XIII
i 1 1

Philil

3 IV Maria Anna, m.

Emperor Ferdinand III

1 . 1
Louis JCIV, m. Maria Theresa

Chari

.es II

(d. I

:70o) 1

Louis, the dauphin

Emperor Leopold I (d. 1705)

Philip, duke of An jott
(as king of Spain, Philip V)

343. How
the War of
the Spanish
Succession
came about.
(From the
memoirs of
Torcy.)

Louis (d. 1712)
Louis XV

Archduke Joseph
(emperor in 1705)

294

Readings in European History

kingdoms and lordships, without any exception or partition
whatsoever. He ordered all his subjects and vassals to ac-
knowledge him as their king and natural sovereign. But till
this prince should come to Madrid, and even till he should
come cf age,^ his Majesty ordained a council of regency, or
junto, for the administration of the state, and nominated the
members of which it was to be composed, placing the queen
at the head.

Immediately upon the king of Spain’s decease, the junto
wrote to the king [of France], giving him notice of this
event; and the Spanish ambassador had orders to deliver
the will to his Majesty, together with the letter signed by
the queen and the members of the junto.

As they were in doubt at Madrid whether the king of
France would accept the last proposals of his Catholic
Majesty, the junto ordered Castel dos Rios, in case of such
a refusal, to have the same courier who had been sent from
Madrid proceed forthwith to Vienna; the intention of the
late king having been to bequeath the entire succession to
the archduke, in case his first settlement should not be
accepted in France.

The king was then at Fontainebleau. Upon the arrival
of the courier, the Spanish ambassador communicated the
orders he had just received to that one among the minis-
ters to whom the king confided the department of foreign
affairs,^ and demanded a private audience of his Majesty.
The king, before he would fix the hour, was desirous of hav-
ing the opinion of his council upon an event so unexpected
and yet so important to the royal family, to the welfare of
the kingdom, and to the general tranquillity of Europe. . . .

It was easier to foresee than to provide for the con-
sequences of the decision in question. His Majesty had
engaged to reject every disposition of his realms whatso-
ever made by the king of Spain in favor of a prince of the
line of France, — an engagement that excluded a bequest by
will, a donation, or any other form of deed or settlement

1 He was seventeen years old in 1700.

2 Namely, the writer himself.

The Ascendency of France tmder Louis XIV 295

By breaking his engagements, he would incur the censure of
violating the sacred word of a king, and moreover the con-
sequence of such a violation was inevitable war. His chief
aim in hastening the conclusion of the peace signed at
Ryswick [1697] was to let his people have time to breathe
after a long series of wars, and now, when they had scarce
begun to enjoy a little repose, they would be obliged to sup-
port a new war, which would immediately become general ;
for there was not the least reason to expect that the neigh-
boring princes, who were already so greatly alarmed at the
power of France, would tamely suffer the king to extend his
authority so as to rule, in the name of his grandson, over
the dominions subject to the crown of Spain in the Old and
New Worlds.

On the other hand, it was to be considered that if the
king refused to accept the will, this same act transferred
the entire succession to the archduke [Joseph]. The same
courier that had been dispatched into France would proceed
to Vienna ; and the Spanish nation, without any hesitation,
would acknowledge the emperor’s second son for their king.
The house of Austria of course would reunite, between the
father and son, the power of Charles V, a power heretofore
so fatal to France. And, besides, all security for preserving
the peace of Ryswick would cease, the treaty of partition
being no longer sufficient to maintain it. . . . The king
therefore determined to accept the will.

Saint-Simon thus describes in his well-known memoirs
the remarkable scene in which Louis XIV announced to
his assembled courtiers that his grandson, the duke of
Anjou, was king of Spain.

At last, on Tuesday, the i6th of November, the king
publicly declared himself. The Spanish ambassador had
received intelligence which proved the eagerness of Spain
to welcome the duke of Anjou as its king. There seemed to
be no doubt in the matter. The king, immediately after get-
ting up, called the ambassador into his cabinet, where his

344. How
Louis XIV
proclaimed
the duke of
Anjou king
of Spain.

2Q6

Readmgs in European History

grace the duke of Anjou had already arrived. Then, pointing
to the duke, he told the ambassador he might salute him
as king of Spain. The ambassador, thereupon, threw him-
self upon his knees after the fashion of his country, and
addressed to the duke a tolerably long compliment in the
Spanish language.

Immediately afterwards the king, contrary to all custom,
opened the two folding doors of his cabinet, and commanded
everybody to enter. It was a very full court that day. The
king, majestically turning his ey)^s towards the numerous
company, and showing them the duke of Anjou, said: “Gen-
tlemen, behold the king of Spain. > His birth called him to
that crown; the late king has called him to it by his will;
the whole nation desired him, and has eagerly asked me
for him ; it is the will of Heaven ; I have obeyed it with
pleasure.”

And then, turning towards his grandson, he said to him :
“ Be a good Spaniard: that is your first duty; but remember
that you are a Frenchman born, in order that in this way the
union between the two nations may be preserved. By this
means you will be able to render both peoples happy, and
preserve the peace of Europe.”

345. Atti-
tude of Eng-
land at the
opening of
the war.
(From the
Memoirs of
Torcy.)

The attitude of England at the opening of the War
of the Spanish Succession is described by the marquis
of Torcy, who, as an active diplomat, was well acquainted
with the policy of the various countries.

During the first year [of the war] the emperor stood his
ground alone. By the treaty signed at The Hague, his allies
had engaged to send him speedy succor ; but to render
King William’s promises effectual, the Parliament of England
had first to approve of that prince’s engagements.

The English are a people rarely unanimous in their sen-
timents. At that time the disputes ran very high between
Whigs and Tories. The king of Great Britain favored the
former, and trusted them with the chief posts and employ-
ments. He was sure indeed of their votes in Parliament ;

The Ascendency of France imder Loids XIV 297

but he could not be sure of bringing the nation into a new
quarrel, when she was groaning under the weight of the
former war and still felt the prejudice it had done to her
commerce. Perhaps it would have signified but little to have
represented to those who bear the burden of the taxes that
Europe was in imminent danger of being oppressed, had not
the love of liberty united those princes and states whose
interest it was to oppose the king of France’s ambitious
designs.

The old bugbear of universal monarchy had less effect
upon the minds of the English than the dread of new taxes
in case of another war. But the death of King James II,
and especially his Majesty’s [Louis XIV] resolution of
acknowledging the prince of Wales as king of Great Britain,
altered the disposition which a great part of the people
seemed to have towards peace. The different parties united.
The whole English nation looked upon it as the greatest
indignity that France should pretend to arrogate to itself the
right of giving them a king in opposition to a prince of their
own inviting, who had reigned over them many years.

King William profited by this general resentment of the
people, and in the speech which he made to both houses
of Parliament he treated the recognition of the prince of
Wales not only as the greatest indignity that could be
offered to his person and to the nation, but likewise as an
act equally important to the Protestant religion, to the
present and future tranquillity of Europe, and to the real
happiness of England. Neither did he forget to exaggerate
the danger to which the commerce of England would be
exposed in its principal branches by a union between Spain
and France.

By thus flattering the temper and disposition of the Eng-
lish, King William received from both houses the warmest
assurances of indignation against France, of zeal for pre-
serving the repose and liberty of England as well as of all
Europe, and of an earnest desire to support the rights of
the house of Austria, as the only means of establishing the
public repose on a solid basis.

The Preten-
der.

298

Readings in European History

A. Refer-
ences.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing hi
English.

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sketch of Louis XIV’s Reign : Schwill, Modern Europe, pp. 200-
214; Adams, G. B., The Growth of the French Natio7i, Chapter XIII,
pp. 202-233 ; Perkins, mider the Regency, C\x2i^t&xY , pp. 129-160.

Colbert and his Reforms: Perkins, Chapter IV, pp. 90-128;
Wakeman, European History, iggS—ijiy, Chapter IX, pp. 184-205.

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes : Perkins, Chapter VI, pp. 164-
207.

Antecedents of the War of the Spanish Succession : Wakeman,
Chapter XIV, pp. 31 1-339.

War of the Spanish Succession ; Cheyney, Short History of Eng-
la7id, pp. 529-535 ; Perkins, Chapter VIII, pp. 239-292 ; Wakeman,
Chapter XV, pp. 340-363.

Treaty of Utrecht : Wakeman, pp. 363-371 ; Dyer and Hassall,
Modern Europe, Vol. IV, pp. 107-116.

Hassall, Louis XIV and the Zenith of the French Monarchy,
1897 (Heroes of the Nations Series).

Kitchin, History of France, Vol. III.

Baird, The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
2 vols., 1895. careful and elaborate work by a warm partisan.

Saint-Simon, Memoirs, 4 vols. A much-abridged translation of the
voluminous original. See below, under C.

Life and Letters of Charlotte Elizabeth, Mother of Philippe d' Orleans,
London, 1889. A selection from the many letters which a German
princess, who married Louis XIV’s brother, dispatched to her friends.
See below, under C.

COMTESSE DE PuLIGA, Madame de Sevigiie, her Correspondents and
Contemporaries, 2 vols., London, 1873. Gives some idea of this charm-
ing letter writer. See below, under C.

Claude, Jean, The Cmiel Persecutions of the Protestants in the King-
dom of France, Boston, 1893. The author, who published his book
immediately after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was a leading
Huguenot and the pastor of the great Protestant church at Charenton,
near Paris.

Gerard, The Peace of Utrecht, 1885. Really a history of the War of
the Spanish Succession.

Histoire generale, edited by Lavisse and Rambaud, Vol. VI, Chapters
I, IH-VHI. Excellent bibliographies.

The Ascendency of France under Louis XIV 299

Histoire de Fra7ice, edited by Lavisse ; Vol. VII, Parts I and II, by
Lavisse (Louis XIV, 1643-1685) ; and Vol. VIII, Part I, by Rebel-
LiAU and Sagnac (the close of Louis’ reign). These volumes are
announced for early publication.

The early part of Louis’ reign has been elaborately treated by Ch6-
RUEL, Histoire de France peiidattt la minorite de Louis XIV, and His-
toire de France sous le ministere de Mazarin, 7 vols., 1879-1883.

CORREARD, Choix de textes pour servir d, V etude des institutions de la
France. A great part of this excellent and inexpensive little school book
is devoted to the reign of Louis XIV.

Vast, Grands Traites du regne de Louis XIV, 1893. Very con-
venient.

ISAMBERT, Recueil general des ancien7ies lois, Vols. XVIII-XX.
Contains the more important legislation.

Ezechiel Spanheim (envoy of the elector of Brandenburg at the
court of Louis, 1680-1689), Relation de la cour de France en i6go
(Societe de I’histoire de France).

Of memoirs there are many for this period. The chief collections
are Nouvelle Collection de Mhnoires, edited by Michaud and Poujou-
lat, 34 vols., 1854, and Archives curieuses de V histoire de Fra^ice, edited
by Cimber and Danjou, 27 vols., 1874-1880. The following writers of
memoirs deserve special mention :

Saint-Simon (1675-1755), Mhyioires. Saint-Simon is perhaps the
most celebrated of memoir writers. He began to make notes very early,
probably in 1691, but did not commence to write out his memoirs in
their final form until 1740, when he was sixty-five years old. The events
he narrates belong to the period 1692-1723, and he made much use of
the Journal of Dangeau, mentioned below. Saint-Simon’s admirable
style has led his readers to overlook his inaccuracy and partiality, for he
was a good hater. There is an excellent edition of the Memoirs edited by
Cheruel, 2d ed., 1873-1877 (22 vols.), cheaper edition in thirteen vols.
About half of a new edition in thirty vols., edited by Boislisle, has
appeared in Les Grands Ecrivains de la France.

The Letters of the duchess of Orleans, sister-in-law of Louis and
mother of the regent Philippe of Orleans, form an interesting source.
Important for the latter half of Louis’ reign. Madame’s sharp eyes saw
many things, and she wrote very freely and constantly to her friends
and relatives. There are a number of French translations of collections
of her letters, the most complete of which is that edited by Jaegle, Paris,
3 vols., 1890. Ranke, Franzosische Geschichte, Vol. VI, gives a number
in the original German.

Memoirs
and letters.

Saint-Simon.

Letters of
the duchess
of Orleans.

300

Readmgs in European History

The French
government
under

Louis XIV.

The Hugue-
nots.

Dangeau (1638-1720), Journal, 19 vols., 1854-1860. This covers
the period 1684-1720, and was written day by day by a well-informed
and conscientious writer, a member of Louis’ court. Saint-Simon availed
himself generously of Dangeau’s data.

Madame de Sevigne (1626-1696), Letters. The charming letters of
this charming lady are very numerous and relate mainly to the years
1670-1696. The most complete of many editions is that edited for
Les Grands Ecrivains de la France by Monmerque, 14 vols., 1862-1868,
including elaborate indices. Several volumes of selections have been
published.

For the governmental system and the work of Colbert, see especially
Clement, Lettres, Instructions et Mhnoires de Colbert, 7 vols. ; Depping,
Correspcndance administrative sous le regne de Louis XLV, 4 vols.;
Boislisle, Correspondance des contrbleurs generaux, 2 vols. To these
collections of materials should be added the following works of first-
rate importance : Hanotaux, Origme de 1' institution des inte^idants,
1884 ; Clamageran, Histoire de Vimpdt en Fra7ice, 3 vols., 1867-1868;
Levasseur, Histoire des classes oitvrieres, 2d ed. ; Recueil des instructions
dontiees aux ambassadeurs et ministres de Frajice depuis les traites de
Westphalie jusqu'h la revohition franqaise, 16 vols., 1884 J'yy. This
collection is edited by various hands and contains the text of the more
important documents and analyses of other sources for the foreign policy
of France.

For the Huguenots: Benoit (d. 1728), Histoire de Pedit de Najttes,
5 vols.. Delft, 1693-1695. A celebrated work completed not long after
the revocation of the edict. Recueil des edits, declaratio7is et arrets con-
cernans la religio7t prete7idue refor77iee, new edition, 1885. The brothers
Haag have given a very complete history of French Protestantism in
their Fra7ice protestante, 2d ed., 10 vols., 1877-1895. The Societe de
I’histoire du Protestantism frangais has, since 1853, published a vast
amount of important material in its Bulletm, of which some sixty
volumes have appeared.

Histoire de la la7igue et de la litterature fra7tqaise, edited by Petit de
Julleville, Vol. V, furnishes an introduction to the literature of the
period.

CHAPTER XXXII

RISE OF RUSSIA AND PRUSSIA

I. Ivan the Terrible

Englishmen began to undertake voyages to Russia
during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The following
impressions of the tsar are taken from the description
which one of these English travelers gives of a voyage
which took place in i 567.

The emperor’s name in their tongue is Evan Vasilivich;
that is as much as to say, John, the son of Vasilie. And
by his princely state he is called Otesara [O Tsar !], as his
predecessors have been before^; which, to interpret, is, “a
king that giveth not tribute to any man,” And this word
Otesara his Majesty’s interpreters have of late days inter-
preted to be an emperor; so that now he is called emperor
and great duke of all Russia, etc. . . And as this emperor,
which is now Ivan Vasilivich, doth exceed his predecessors
in name, — that is, from a duke to an emperor, — even so
much by report he doth exceed them in stoutness of courage
and valiantness and a great deal more ; for he is no more
afraid of his . . . enemies, which are not a few, than the
hobby [is] of the larks.

This emperor useth great familiarity, as well unto all his
nobles and subjects as also unto strangers which serve him
either in his wars or in occupations; for his pleasure is that
they shall dine oftentimes in the year in his presence, and,
besides that, he is oftentimes abroad, either at one church

1 In spite of this assertion, it would seem that Ivan was the first to
assume the title of tsar, at his coronation in 1547.

301

346. An
English-
man’s im-
pressions
of Ivan the
Terrible

(1567)-

302

Readings m European History

or another, and walking with his noblemen abroad. And by
this means he is not only beloved of his nobles and commons,
but also had in great fear and dread through all his domin-
ions, so that I think that no prince in Christendom is more
feared of his own than he is, nor yet better beloved. For if
he bid any of his dukes go, they will run ; if he give any evil
or angry word to any of them, the party will not come again
into his Majesty’s presence for a long time if he be not sent
for, but he will feign him to be very sick, and will let the
hair of his head grow very long, without either cutting or
shaving, which is an evident token that he is in the emperor’s
displeasure ; for when they be in their prosperity they ac-
count it a shame to wear long hair, in consideration whereof
they use to have their heads shaven.

His Majesty heareth all complaints himself, and with his
own mouth giveth sentence and judgment of all matters,
and that with expedition ; but with religious matters he
meddleth not withal, but referreth them wholly unto the
metropolitan.

His Majesty retaineth and well rewardeth all strangers
that come to serve him, and especially men of war.

He delighteth not greatly in hawking, hunting, or any
other pastime, nor in hearing instruments or music, but
setteth his whole delight upon two things: first, to serve
God, as undoubtedly he is very devout in his religion ; and
the second, how to subdue and conquer his enemies.

II. Peter the Great

Peter the Great, in his anxiety to reform Russia and
make it a great power, renewed the active intercourse
with western Europe which had been fostered to some
extent toward a century and a half earlier by Ivan
the Terrible. He visited the western regions himself,
imported military leaders, artisans, and scientists, and
did much to remodel Russian customs. One of the

Rise of Russia and Pries sia 303

most satisfactory accounts of the tsar’s visit to England
is given by the sagacious historian, Bishop Burnet d

I mentioned in the relation of the former year [1698] the
tsar’s coming out of his own country ; on which I will now
enlarge. He came this winter over to England and stayed
some months among us. I waited often on him, and was
ordered both by the king and the archbishop and bishops to
attend upon him and to offer him such informations of our
religion and constitution as he was willing to receive. I had
good interpreters, so I had much free discourse with him.
He is a man of a very hot temper, soon inflamed and very
brutal in his passion. He raises his natural heat by drinking
much brandy, which he rectifies himself with great applica-
tion. He is subject to convulsive motions all over his body,
and his head seems to be affected with these. He wants not
capacity, and has a larger measure of knowledge than might
be expected from his education, which was very indifferent.
A^ant of judgment, with an instability of temper, appear
in him too often and too evidently.

He is mechanically turned, and seems designed by nature
rather to be a ship carpenter than a great prince. This was
his chief study and exercise while he stayed here. He
wrought much with his own hands and made all about him
work at the models of ships. He told me he designed a
great fleet at Azuph [i.e. Azov] and with it to attack the
Turkish empire. But he did not seem capable of conducting
so great a design, though his conduct in his wars since this
has discovered a greater genius in him than appeared at this
time.

He was desirous to understand our doctrine, but he did
not seem disposed to mend matters in Moscovy. He was,
indeed, resolved to encourage learning and to polish his
people by sending some of them to travel in other countries
and to draw strangers to come and live among them. He
seemed apprehensive still [i.e. ever] of his sister’s [i.e. the

347. Bishop
Burnet’s
impressions
of Peter the
Great in
1698.

The tsar’s
interest in
shipbuilding.

1 See above, pp. 253 and 267.

304

Readings in E^Lropeai^ History

Burnet’s re-
flections upon
Russian
autocracy.

Peter’s ven-
geance upon
the rebels.

Princess Sophia’s] intrigues. There was a mixture both of
passion and severity in his temper. He is resolute, but
understands little of war, and seemed not at all inquisitive
that v/ay.

After I had seen him often, and had conversed much with
him, I could not but adore the depth of the providence of
God that had raised up such a furious man to so absolute an
authority over so great a part of the world. David, consider-
ing the great things God had made for the use of man, broke
out into the meditation, “ What is man, that thou art so
mindful of him ? ” But here there is an occasion for revers-
ing these words, since man seems a very contemptible thing
in the sight of God, while such a person as the tsar has such
multitudes put, as it were, under his feet, exposed to his
restless jealousy and savage temper.

He went from hence to the court of Vienna, where he
purposed to have stayed some time, but he was called home
sooner than he had intended upon a discovery, or a sus-
picion, of intrigues managed by his sister. The strangers, to
whom he trusted most, were so true to him that those designs
were crushed before he came back. But on this occasion he
let loose his' fury on all whom he suspected. Some hundreds
of them were hanged all around Moskow, and it was said
that he cut off many heads with his own hand ; and so far
was he from relenting or showing any sort of tenderness
that he seemed delighted with it. How long he is to be the
scourge of that nation God only knows.

As Burnet mentions, the old and mutinous Muscovite
guard — the Streltsi (or SU'elitz, as it is sometimes less ac-
curately written) — took occasion during Peter’s absence
to rebel. Peter’s sister Sophia was implicated, and the tsar
hurried home to make a cruel investigation and take horri-
ble vengeance upon the seditious. An Austrian secretary
of legation, named Von Korb, who was in Moscow on the
tsar’s return, has left in his diary a painful but probably
very accurate account of Peter’s savage conduct.

Rise of Russia and Prussia

305

How sharp was the pain, how great the indignation, to
which the tsar’s Majesty was mightily moved, when he knew
of the rebellion . of the Streltsi, betraying openly a mind
panting for vengeance ! He was still tarrying at Vienna,
quite full of the desire of setting out for Italy; but, fervid
as was his curiosity of rambling abroad, it was, nevertheless,
speedily extinguished on the announcement of the troubles
that had broken out in the bowels of his realm. Going
immediately to Lefort (almost the only person that he con-
descended to treat with intimate familiarity), he thus indig-
nantly broke out: “Tell me, Francis, son of James, how I
can reach Moscow by the shortest way, in a brief space, so
that I may wreak vengeance on this great perfidy of my
people, with punishments worthy of their abominable crime.
Not one of them shall escape with impunity. Around my
royal city, which, with their impious efforts, they planned to
destroy, I will have gibbets and gallows set upon the walls
and ramparts, and each and every one of them will I put to a
direful death.” Nor did he long delay the plan for his justly
excited wrath ; he took the quick post, as his ambassador
suggested, and in four weeks’ time he had got over about
three hundred miles without accident, and arrived the 4th
of September, 1698, — a monarch for the well disposed, but
an avenger for the wicked.

His first anxiety after his arrival was about the rebel-
lion, — in what it consisted, what the insurgents meant, who
dared to instigate such a crime. And as nobody could an-
swer accurately upon all points, and some pleaded their
own ignorance, others the obstinacy of the Streltsi, he began
to have suspicions of everybody’s loyalty. ... No day,
holy or profane, were the inquisitors idle; every day was
deemed fit and lawful for torturing. There were as many
scourges as there were accused, and every inquisitor was a
butcher. . . . The whole month of October was spent in
lacerating the backs of culprits with the knout and with
flames ; no day were those that were left alive exempt from
scourging or scorching; or else they were broken upon the
wheel, or driven to the gibbet, or slain with the ax. . , .

348. An
Austrian’s
account of
Peter’s way
of dealing
with rebels
(1698-1699).

3o6

Readings in European History

Moscow
adorned with
corpses of
rebels.

349. How
Alexander
Gordon was
promoted by
Peter.

(From a
brief biog-
raphy pref-
aced to his
History of
Peter the
Great.)

To prove to all people how holy and inviolable are those
walls of the city which the Streltsi rashly meditated scaling
in a sudden assault, beams were run out from all the embra-
sures in the walls near the gates, in each of which two rebels
were hanged. This day beheld about two hundred and fifty
die that death. There are few cities fortified with as many
palisades as Moscow has given gibbets to her guardian
Streltsi.

[In front of the nunnery where Sophia was confined] there
were thirty gibbets erected in a quadrangle shape, from which
there hung two hundred and thirty Streltsi ; the three princi-
pal ringleaders, who tendered a petition to Sophia touching
the administration of the realm, were hanged close to the
windows of that princess, presenting, as it were, the petitions
that were placed in their hands, so near that Sophia might
with ease touch them.

Peter, like his father, had a great number of foreign
officers about him, German, French, Dutch, English,
Scotch, in whom he placed great reliance. Patrick
Gordon, a Scotchman, was made chief of the Russian
forces, while the tsar made another Scot, Alexander
Gordon, major general. The latter wrote an interesting
History of Peter the Great. After serving for a short
time under Louis XIV, Gordon had drifted to Russia
about 1694, and appears to have gained his first pro-
motion in the following manner :

Soon after his arrival in Russia he was invited to a
marriage, where a good many young gentlemen of the best
families in the country were present. Few nations are fond
of foreigners ; and the Russians in particular are too apt to
despise them. When these gentlemen were warm with their
liquor some of them spoke very disrespectfully of foreigners,
and of the Scots in particular; they even went the length of
personal abuse. Mr. Gordon, who to his last hour had a
strong passion for his country, could not hear it abused by

Rise of Russia and Prussia

307

anybody without resenting the insult. He modestly repre-
sented to them the injustice of such indiscriminate satire,
acknowledged that there were bad, but insisted there were
also good, men in all countries ; begged they would not lay
him under the disagreeable necessity of quarreling with
them by enlarging further on such a grating subject; and
told them that it was unworthy gentlemen to be influenced
by vulgar prejudices.

The mildness of his reproof, like oil poured upon the fire,
only served to inflame these brave fellows, who exclaimed
against foreigners and Scotland more than ever. When he
could bear their insolence no longer he gave the one who
sat next to him a blow on the temple which brought him to
the floor. In an instant he and the other five were upon Mr-
Gordon and seemed determined to make him fall a victim to
their national prejudice. But our author, not in the least
intimidated by their number, in a few minutes obliged them
to retreat, and had the glory of the victory in this very
unequal combat. Though they used no other weapons but
their fists, Mr. Gordon’s were so weighty, and bestowed with
such good will, that his antagonists bore the marks of them
for several weeks.

Next day a complaint was given to Tsar Peter, wherein
Mr. Gordon was represented in the worst light imaginable.
His Majesty thought it a very singular thing to have a com-
plaint of this nature brought before him when attended with
such disgraceful circumstances on the part of the complain-
ers; he therefore immediately ordered Mr. Gordon to be sent
for. Our author, though no man was less a coward, owned
that this message made him tremble. However, as it be-
hooved him to be obeyed, he instantly waited upon the
tsar, who, putting on a very stern countenance, asked him
how he came to be so turbulent and whether the charge
brought against him was just. Mr. Gordon told his Majesty
of the quarrel with so much ingenuity, spoke so modestly of
his own behavior, and seemed so sorry to have incurred the
tsar’s displeasure, that the affair ended in a manner quite
contrary to the expectations of his enemies.

3o8

Readings in European History

The tsar, after hearing him very patiently, said, “ Well,
sir, your accusers have done you justice by allowing you to
beat six men; I will also do you justice.” On saying this
he withdrew, and in a few minutes returned with a major’s
commission, which he presented to Mr. Gordon with his own
hand.

This anecdote of our author’s history he once told, and
we believe never but once ; not out of vanity, for no man had
a larger share of modesty, but in accidental conversation on
the fierceness of the tsar’s disposition, and how much his
displeasure was dreaded by his greatest subjects.

The impressions which Bishop Burnet records of Peter
(see above, pp. 303 sq.) may be compared with those of
General Gordon, who had different opportunities of
observing the tsar.

350. General
Gordon’s
impressions
of Peter
the Great.

This great emperor came in a few years to know to a
farthing the amount of all his revenues, as also how they
were laid out. He was at little or no expense about his per-
son, and by living rather like a private gentleman than a
prince he saved wholly that great expense which other
monarchs are at in supporting the grandeur of their courts.
It was uneasy for him to appear in majesty, which he seldom
or never did, but when absolutely necessary, on such occa-
sions as giving audience to ambassadors or the like; so that
he had all the pleasure of a great emperor and at the same
time that of a private gentleman.

He was a lover of company, and a man of much humor
and pleasantry, exceedingly facetious and of vast natural
parts. He had no letters ; he could only read and write, but
had a great regard for learning and was at much pains
to introduce it into the country. He rose early; the morn-
ing he gave to business till ten or eleven o’clock at the
farthest ; all the rest of the day, and a great part of the
night, to diversion and pleasure. He took his bottle heartily,
so must all the company ; for when he was merry himself
he loved to see everybody so ; though at the same time he

Rise of RiLssia and Prussia 309

could not endure habitual drinkers, for such he thought unfit
for business.

When he paid a visit to a friend he would pass almost the
whole night, not caring to part with good company till past
two o’clock in the morning. He never kept guards about his
person. . . . He never could abide ceremony, but loved to
be spoke to frankly and without reserve.

It was while Gordon was fighting for the tsar that
Peter undertook the founding of the new town of
St. Petersburg.

In the year 1703 the tsar took the field early, cantoned
his troops in the month of March, and about the 20th of
April brought the army together ; then marched and invested
another small but important place called Nyen-Chance, which
surrendered on the 14th of May. The commodious situation
of this place made the tsar resolve to erect on it a consider-
able town, with a strong citadel, consisting of six royal bas-
tions, together with good outworks; this he soon put into
execution and called it St. Petersburg, which is now esteemed
so strong that it will be scarcely possible for the Swedes
ever to take it by force.

As he was digesting the scheme of this, his favorite town,
which he designed not only for the place of his residence
but the principal harbor of his shipping, as having a commu-
nication with the sea by the river Nyen ; having duly
observed and sounded it all over, he found it would be a
very natural project to erect a fort in the isle opposite to
the island of Ratusary ; which for a whole league over to the
land is not above four feet deep. This is a most curious
work scarcely to be matched. He went about it in winter,
in the month of November, when the ice was so strong that
it could bear any weight, causing it to^carry materials such
as timber, stone, etc. The foundation was thus laid: trees
of about thirty feet in length and about fifteen inches thick
were taken and joined artfully together into chests ten feet
high ; these chests were filled with stones of great weight.

351. How
Peter the
Great

founded St.

Petersburg

(From

General

Gordon’s

History.)

310 Readings in European History

which sunk down through the sea, and made a very
solid foundation, upon which he raised his fort, called
Cronstat. . . .

About two hundred fathoms distant from the island Ratu-
sary there is also erected another strong fort, with a toler-
able small town, called Cronburgh, where sea officers are
commonly lodged. Betwixt Cronstat and Cronburgh is all
sea, deep only in the middle, about thirty fathoms broad,
so that ships of great burden can pass only one after
another. These two forts secure St. Petersburg from any
insult by sea, and make it perhaps one of the best and safest
harbors in the known world. . . . The work gave no small
umbrage to the Swedes. In carrying materials for it there
were upwards of eight thousand horses destroyed and near
as many men.

A French historical writer of the first half of the
eighteenth century, Jean Rousset de Missy,^ wrote a
life of Peter the Great. Although the author never
visited Russia, his volumes have some value, since he
appears to have taken pains to get reliable information.
He thus describes the reform in dress enforced by
Peter.

352. How
Peter the
Great forced
his people
to wear
Western
dress.

The tsar labored at the reform of fashions, or, more prop-
erly speaking, of dress. Until that time the Russians had
always worn long beards, which they cherished and pre-
served with much care, allowing them to hang down on their
bosoms, without even cutting the moustache. With these
long beards they wore the hair very short, except the eccle-
siastics, who, to distinguish themselves, wore it very long.
The tsar, in order to reform that custom, ordered that gen-
tlemen, merchants, and other subjects, except priests and
peasants, should each pay a tax of one hundred rubles a year
if they wished to keep their beards ; the commoners had to
pay one kopeck each. Officials were stationed at the gates

1 He wrote under the assumed name Ivan Nestesuranoi.

Rise of Russia and Prussia 31 1

of the towns to collect that tax, which the Russians regarded
as an enormous sin on the part of the tsar and as a thing
which tended to the abolition of their religion.

These insinuations, which came from the priests, occa-
sioned the publication of many pamphlets in Moscow, where
for that reason alone the tsar was regarded as a tyrant and
a pagan ; and there were many old Russians who, after
having their beards shaved off, saved them preciously, in
order to have them placed in their coffins, fearing that they
would not be allowed to enter heaven without their beards.
As for the young men, they followed the new custom with
the more readiness as it made them appear more agreeable
to the fair sex.

From the reform in beards we may pass to that of clothes.
Their garments, like those of the Orientals, were very long,
reaching to the heel. The tsar issued an ordinance abolish-
ing that costume, commanding all the boyars (nobles) and
all those who had positions at the court to dress after the
French fashion, and likewise to adorn their clothes with gold
or silver according to their means.

As for the rest of the people, the following method was
employed. A suit of clothes cut according to the new fashion
was hung at the gate of the city, with a decree enjoining
upon all except peasants to have their clothes made on this
model, under penalty of being forced to kneel and have all
that part of their garments which fell below the knee cut off,
or pay two grives every time they entered the town with
clothes in the old style. Since the guards at the gates exe-
cuted their duty in curtailing the garments in a sportive
spirit, the people were amused and readily abandoned their
old dress, especially in Moscow and its environs, and in the
towns which the tsar oftenest visited.

The dress of the women was changed, too. English hair-
dressing was substituted for the caps and bonnets hitherto
worn ; bodices, stays, and skirts, for the former undergar-
ment.^ . . .

^ The Russian names of the native garments are omitted here.

312

Readings in European History

The same ordinance also provided that in the future
women, as well as men, should be invited to entertainments,
such as weddings, banquets, and the like, where both sexes
should mingle in the same hall, as in Holland and England.
It was likewise added that these entertainments should con-
clude with concerts and dances, but that only those should
be admitted who were dressed in English costumes. His
Majesty set the example in all these changes.

III. How THE Turks were defeated before
Vienna (1683)

During the latter half of the seventeenth century
eastern Europe was much agitated by the renewed
activity of the Turks. In 1683 the grand vizier, Kara-
Moustafa, determined to march straight upon Vienna,
to which he laid siege with an immense army. Although
the city had no more than ten thousand regular soldiers
in its garrison, the governor, Stahrenberg, refused to
surrender. The town was soon in desperate straits,
and was upon the point of falling into the enemy’s
hands, when the king of Poland, John Sobieski, accom-
panied by some of the German princes, arrived. In the
following letter, dated September 13, Sobieski describes
to his wife the memorable defeat of the Turks, which
was the beginning of their rapid expulsion from their
western conquests.

353. How
Sobieski
defeated the
Turks before
Vienna
(1683).

Praised be our Lord God forever for granting our nation
such a victory and such glory as was never heard of in all
times past ! The whole camp of the enemy, with their
artillery and untold treasure, has fallen into our hands.
They are now retreating in great confusion, and the ap-
proaches to the town, the camp, and the open fields are
covered with their corpses.

Rise of Russia a7id Prussia

313

The camels and other beasts of burden, the cattle, and
the sheep belonging to the enemy were captured to-day by
our troops and the captive Turkish shepherds driven off.

There are some deserters, well mounted and gorgeously
appareled, who have voluntarily come over to us from the
enemy. Their appearance was so extraordinary and well-
nigh incredible that the townspeople were overcome with
fright and our soldiers with astonishment, for they thought
the enemy had recovered themselves and were coming back.

What they lost in powder and ammunition alone is worth
a million. Some of our camp followers foolishly set off the
powder in several places, and it made a fearful noise, but
there was no further harm done. The grand vizier lost all
his rich treasure and barely escaped, on horseback, with
nothing but the coat on his back, and I have become his
heir and successor.

It all came about in this way. Having forced my way
into the enemy’s camp, I was pressing forward in pursuit of
the vizier when one of his chamberlains surrendered to me
and afterwards showed me his leader’s tent, which was so
large it might have contained within its circumference the
city of Warsaw or of Lemberg. The standard that the grand
vizier always had carried before him with great ceremony
fell into my hands, along with the Mohammedan banner
presented to him by the sultan for this campaign, which I
have sent by post to his Apostolic Holiness in Rome. There
are quantities of the most beautiful gold-mounted sabers and
other rare Turkish accouterments to be seen in our army.

The coming on of night prevented us from continuing the
pursuit. It cannot be denied that they defended themselves
bravely, especially the companies of janizaries who guarded
the approaches to the camp and so bore the brunt of the
battle. The daring and courage of these people were such
that while part of them fought with us in the field the rest
undertook to storm the fortifications, which with their great
numbers they might well do.

I estimate the number of the besieging army at three
hundred thousand, not counting the Tartars ; others believe

314 Readings in European History

there were three hundred thousand tents and reckon three
men to a tent, but that would make the number too great to
be believed. However, there must have been at least one
hundred thousand tents, and from these each of the conquer-
ors takes away what he likes. The townspeople, too, are
rushing out to get their share. I believe it will take them
eight days to gather in all the booty.

A number of Austrian people — women folk especially —
whom the Turkish army had taken captive, but could not
carry away with them in their hasty flight, they cut down
with their sabers; but many of them can be healed of their
wounds.

This morning early I went into the town and found that
it could not have held out five days longer. Never have the
eyes of men beheld so great damage done in so brief a time ;
great masses of stone and rock have been broken up and
tossed about in heaps by the enemy’s mines, and the impe-
rial castle is riddled with holes and ruined by their cannon
balls.

I had a long fight against the vizier, because he threw his
whole force against my right wing, so that the troops of the
left wing had but little to do, and finally left their position
and came to my aid. Then (when the victory was won) I
was surrounded by the elector of Bavaria, Prince von Wal-
deck, and many more of the imperial princes, who embraced
and kissed me ; the generals grasped my hands and feet ; the
other commanders and officers, with their regiments on horse
and on foot, shouted, “ Our brave king ! ” Early this morning
came the elector of Saxony and the dukes of Lorraine, who
had no chance to speak to me yesterday because their posi-
tion was on the outermost edge of the left wing. Finally,
the governor of Vienna, Count von Stahrenberg, accompa-
nied by a great crowd of people of both high and low degree,
came out to greet me, all kissing and petting me and calling
me their savior. Later I visited two churches, where again
I found crowds of people who tried to kiss my hands, and
even my feet and clothing; most of them had to content
themselves with touching my coat. All around one heard

Rise of Russia and Prussia 3 1 5

them crying, “Let us through to kiss the valorous hand!”
Together they lifted up a shout of joy. I begged the Ger-
man officers to forbid this, but in spite of them a great crowd
shouted aloud, “ Long live the king ! ”

There is a huge pile of captured flags and tents ; in short,
the enemy has departed with nothing whatever but his life.
Let Christendom rejoice and thank the Lord our God that
he has not permitted the heathen to hold us up to scorn and
derision and to ask, “ Where, now, is your God ? ”

IV. The Rise of Prussia

The Great Elector was very anxious to withdraw his
province of Prussia from Poland, which still claimed
sovereignty over it. He first allied himself with Sweden,
and defeated the Poles in the battle of Warsaw (1650).
He then deserted Sweden, and allied himself with the
Poles, on condition that they should acknowledge his
sovereignty over Prussia. Cromwell found time to ask
his secretary, John Milton, the poet, to felicitate the
Great Elector on his successes.

Most Illustrious Prmce ; dearest friend and ally :

Whereas your Highness’ exceptional ability in both peace
and war is already famous throughout the world, and your
greatness of spirit and constancy are such as to make all
neighboring rulers zealously seek your friendship, since none
of them could desire a truer or more faithful friend and ally ;
so we, in order to prove that we too are among those who
hold the highest possible opinion of you and your distin-
guished services to the Christian Church, have sent to you
the noble lord, William Jepson, a colonel, and a member of
our upper house, in order that he may convey to you, in our
name, our most cordial greetings, our best wishes for a
happy termination of all your undertakings, and our espe-
• cial good will and inclination toward you in all things. We

354. Crom-
well pre-
sents his
respects to
the Great
Elector
(1657).

3i6

Readings in European History

355. The
edict of the
Great Elec-
tor concern-
ing the
Huguenot
refugees.

beg, therefore, that in all his dealings with you you will
bestow on him the same faith and confidence as though
everything were authorized and approved by us by word of
mouth.

The Great Elector, in his anxiety to build up his
kingdom, eagerly welcomed the Huguenots when they
fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes.

In view of the sympathy which we ought to, and do, feel
for our brethren of the reformed evangelical religion in
France, who have been driven by persecution to leave their
homes and settle in other countries, we, Frederick William,
etc., desire by this edict to offer them a free and safe refuge
in all our lands and possessions and to specify what rights,
privileges, and prerogatives we are graciously minded to grant
them. . . .

3. . . . We particularly specify the towns of Stendal,
Werben, Rathenow, Brandenburg, and Frankfurt in the
electorate of Brandenburg, Magdeburg, Halle, and Calbe
in the duchy of Magdeburg, and Konigsberg in Prussia, as
places where living is cheap and opportunities for trade and
other means of support abundant ; and we command here-
with that when any of the said French people of the reformed
evangelical religion make their appearance, they shall be well
received in the said towns, and that every opportunity and
assistance shall be given them in establishing themselves
there. They shall, moreover, be free to establish themselves
in any other place in our lands and dominions outside the
above-mentioned towns which shall seem to them more con-
venient for the purposes of their trade or calling.

4. They shall be permitted to bring with them any furni-
ture, merchandise, or other movable property free of all
duties or imposts of any kind whatever. . . .

6. In towns or other places where there are unoccupied
or waste lands or properties, we ordain that these shall be
given over to our said French brethren of the reformed

Rise of Russia and Prussia

317

evangelical religion, free of all and every incumbrance, to
hold and enjoy for themselves and their posterity. We fur-
ther ordain that the necessary materials for the cultivation
of these lands shall be furnished them gratis. . . .

7. So soon as any of our said French brethren of the
reformed evangelical religion shall have settled themselves
in any town or village, they shall be invested, without pay-
ment of any kind, with all the rights, benefits, and privileges
of citizenship enjoyed or exercised by our subjects who live
and were born in said town or village.

8. If any of them shall desire to establish manufactories
of cloth, stuffs, hats, or other articles, we will not only
bestow on them all the necessary permissions, rights, and
privileges, but will further aid them, so far as is in our
power, with money and requisite materials.

9. Those who wish to settle in the country shall be given
a certain amount of land to cultivate, shall be furnished with
the requisite utensils and materials and encouraged in every
way, as has been done in the case of certain families who
have come from Switzerland to settle in our country.

11. In every town where our said French brethren in the
faith are established, we will support a special preacher and
set apart a proper place where they may hold their services
in the French language, and with such usages and ceremo-
nies as are customary in the reformed evangelical churches
in France.

12. As for the members of the French nobility who have
placed themselves under our protection and entered our
service, they enjoy the same honors, dignities, and preroga-
tives as our own subjects of noble birth, and several of them
have been given some of the most important offices at our
court as well as in our army ; and we are graciously disposed
to show like favor to all such of the French nobility as may
in future present themselves to us.

Given at Potsdam, the 29th of October, 1685.

Frederick William, Elector.

356. The
pope pro-
tests against
the assump-
tion of king-
ship by the
elector of
Brandenburg
(1701).

318 Readings in European History

In a letter addressed to Louis XIV, the pope protests
against the arrogance of the successor of the Great
Elector in assuming the kingly crown.

We, Clement XI, send to our beloved son in Christ our
good wishes and apostolic blessing.

Although it is well known to us that your Majesty in no
way approves the bad example which has been given to all
Christendom by the behavior of Frederick, margrave of
Brandenburg, in daring to openly assume the title, of king;
nevertheless, lest we seem to fail in upholding our office, we
cannot pass over this matter in silence ; for a non-Catholic
person cannot, without affront to the Church, assume the
sacred title of king, and the said margrave has not hesitated
to call himself king of a part of Prussia which has from of
old belonged to the German knights.

Wherefore, in view of this our admonition, we require
your Majesty (whose magnanimity is well known to us) to
refrain from according to the said margrave the kingly dig-
nity which he has so rashly ventured to assume. Such as
he are condemned and cast out by the word of God, which
says, “Ye have ruled, but not through me ; ye have become
princes and I have not known ye.”

Our reverend brother, Philip Anthony, archbishop of
Athens, will further communicate our views on this matter
to your Majesty, to whom, in God’s name, we wish all hap-
piness and graciously send our apostolic blessing.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the seal of the fish-
erman’s ring, the i6th of April, 1701. *

The influence of France upon Germany was very
marked during the eighteenth century. Frederick the
Great wrote almost exclusively in French. The com-
plaints of honest Germans that French manners were
corrupting the fatherland go back, however, some dec-
ades before Frederick’s time. The following character-
istic protest belongs to his father’s reign.

Rise of Rtissia and Prussia 319

It is, alas, but too plain that since the French devil has
come to rule the Germans we have so changed in our way
of life, manners, and customs that we deserve to be called,
if not naturalized Frenchmen, at least a strange new French-
ified people. In the past, Frenchmen have not been greatly
esteemed in Germany, but nowadays we cannot live without
them ; everything must be French, — French speech, French
clothes, French music, French diseases, and I fear we ’ll
come to a French death, for our sins deserve no other.
Most of the German courts are ordered on the French plan,
and no one can hope to be of any importance in them unless
he knows French and especially unless he has been in Paris,
that university for the study of every sort of frivolity. . . .

Before our children have mastered any sort of speech,
when they are but four or five years old, they are offered up
to the French Moloch, introduced to French galantries, and
the parents must see about a French teacher and dancing
master. In France no one speaks German unless it be some
fev^r Germans among themselves ; but here with us the use
of the French language has become so common that in many
places it is even used by the shoemakers and tailors, the
servants and the children, . . .

As to clothes, I venture to say that in France itself things
are not so bad as here in Germany. The plain truth is that
even in Paris I have never seen such variety and frequent
changes of fashion in clothes as in Germany. . . . The
French cannot devise anything so absurd that the Germans,
in imitating it, will not make it still more ridiculous.

V. Frederick the Great and his Father

Frederick the Great’s father gave the following in-
structions for the education of his son.

. , . Above all else, it is important that his character —
and it is character which governs all human action — should
be, from earliest youth, so formed that he will love and de-
light in virtue and feel horror and disgust for vice. Nothing

357. French
manners in
Germany
in the early
eighteenth
century.

358. In-
structions
of Frederick
William I
for the
education of
his son.
(Condensed.)

320 Readings in European History

can so greatly contribute to this end as to implant the
true fear of God so early in the young heart that it shall
take root and bear fruit in the time when there is no longer
any guidance or oversight. For other men are guided toward
virtue and away from evil by the rewards and punishments
dealt out by those who are set above them, but the prince
must rely on the fear of God alone, since he is subject to no
human law, punishment, or reward.

My son and all his attendants shall say their prayers on
their knees both morning and evening, and after prayers
shall read a chapter from the Bible.

He shall be kept away from operas, comedies, and other
worldly amusements and, as far as possible, be given a dis-
taste for them. He must be taught to pay proper respect
and submission to his parents, but without slavishness.

His tutors must use every means they can devise to re-
strain him from puffed-up pride and insolence and to train
him in good management, economy, and modesty. And
since nothing is so harmful as flattery, all those who are
about the person of my son are forbidden to indulge in it
on pain of my extreme displeasure.

As to the further studies that become a prince, his prog-
ress must depend upon his years and growth, but it must
be looked to that he is taught the most important things first,
and all without inspiring distaste or disgust. As this will
depend largely on the adroitness of his preceptor, Duhan,
the latter must consult from time to time with the head tutor
as to the course to be pursued, which must then be presented
to me for my approval.

As for the Latin language, he is not to learn it, and I
desire that no one shall even speak to me on this subject ; but
his tutors shall see to it that he acquires a terse and ele-
gant style in writing French as well as German. Arithmetic,
mathematics, artillery, and agriculture he must be taught thor-
oughly, ancient history only superficially,- but that of our
own time and of the last one hundred and fifty years as accu-
rately as possible. He must have a thorough knowledge of
law, of international law, of geography, and of what is most

Rise of Russia and Prussia

321

remarkable in each country ; and, above all, my son must
be carefully taught the history of his own house.

His tutors must take the greatest pains to imbue my son
with a sincere love for the soldier’s profession and to im-
press upon him that nothing else in the world can confer
upon a prince such fame and honor as the sword, and that
he will be despised by all the world if he does not only love
it but seek in it his only glory ; and his chief tutor shall pro-
vide for his being taught the practice of arms as play in his
recreation hours.

Nothing is more becoming or more necessary in a prince
than the ability to speak well under all circumstances ; there-
fore my son’s tutors must look to it that he accustom himself
betimes to this art by practice. . . .

The following is a suggestive letter of the crown
prince, Frederick, written at the age of sixteen, to his
father, Frederick William I.

WusTERHAUSEN, September ii, 1728.

I have not ventured for a long time to present myself
before my dear papa, partly because I was advised against
it, but chiefly because I anticipated an even worse reception
than usual and feared to vex my dear papa still further by
the favor I have now to ask; so I have preferred to put it in
writing.

I beg my dear papa that he will be kindly disposed
toward me. I do assure him that after long examination
of my conscience I do not find the slightest thing with which
to reproach myself; but if, against my wish and will, I have
vexed my dear papa, I hereby beg most humbly for forgive-
ness, and hope that my dear papa will give over the fearful
hate which has appeared so plainly in his whole behavior
and to which I cannot accustom myself. I have always
thought hitherto that I had a kind father, but now I see the
contrary. However, I will take courage and hope that my
dear papa will think this all over and take me again into
his favor. Meantime I assure him that I will never, my life

359. A
youthful
letter of
Frederick
the Great
to his father.

322

Readings m European History

long, willingly fail him, and in spite of his disfavor I am still,
with most dutiful and childlike respect, my dear papa’s
Most obedient and faithful servant and son,

Frederick.

Frederick William replied:

359a. Fred-
erick Wil-
liam’s reply.

A bad, obstinate boy, who does not love his father; for
when one does one’s best, and especially when one loves
one’s father, one does what he wishes not only when he is
standing by but when he is not there to see. Moreover you
know very well that I cannot stand an effeminate fellow who
has no manly tastes, who cannot ride or shoot (to his shame
be it said !), is untidy about his person, and wears his hair
curled like a fool instead of cutting it ; and that I have con-
demned all these things a thousand times, and yet there is
no sign of improvement. For the rest, haughty, offish as a
country lout, conversing with none but a favored few in-
stead of being affable and popular, grimacing like a fool, and
never following my wishes out of love for me but only when
forced into it, caring for nothing but to have his own way,
and thinking nothing else is of any importance. This is my

Frederick William.

VI. Frederick the Great and the Seven Years’ War

The Seven Years’ War opened disastrously for Fred-
erick the Great. His only ally against all Europe was
England. In spite of a victory over the Erench at
Rossbach (November 5, 1757), his situation, which he
describes in the following address to his generals, was
a very critical one. But so great was his military skill
and the valor of the soldiers, whom he inspired with his
own fiery confidence, that on December 5 he won the
battle of Leuthen against tremendous odds, — a victory
which Napoleon declared would alone have entitled him
to rank among the greatest generals.

Rise of Russia and Prussia

323

You are aware, gentlemen, that Prince Karl of Lorraine
has succeeded in taking Schweidnitz, defeating the duke of
Severn and making himself master of Breslau, while I was
engaged in checking the advance of the French and impe-
rial forces. A part of Schleswig, my capital, and all the mili-
tary stores it contained, are lost, and I should feel myself
in dire straits indeed if it were not for my unbounded confi-
dence in your courage, your constancy, and your love for
the fatherland, which you have proved to me on so many
occasions in the past. These services to me and to the
fatherland have touched the deepest fibers of my heart.
There is hardly one among you who has not distinguished
himself by some conspicuous deed of valor, wherefore I flat-
ter myself that in the approaching opportunity also you will
not fail in any sacrifice that your country may demand
of you.

And this opportunity is close at hand. I should feel that
I had accomplished nothing if Austria were left in posses-
sion of Schleswig. Let me tell you then that I propose, in
defiance of all the rules of the art of war, to attack the
army of Prince Karl, three times as large as ours, wherever
I find it. It is here no question of the numbers of the enemy
nor of the importance of the positions they have occupied;
all this I hope to overcome by the devotion of my troops
and the careful carrying out of my plans. I must take this
step or all will be lost ; we must defeat the enemy, else we
shall all lie buried under his batteries. So I believe — so I
shall act.

Communicate my decision to all the officers of the army ;
prepare the common soldier for the exertions that are to
come, and tell him that I feel justified in expecting unques-
tioning obedience from him. Remember that you are Prus-
sians and you cannot show yourselves unworthy of that
distinction. But if there be one or other among you who
fears to share with me any and all danger, he shall at once
be given his discharge without reproach from me.

[The solemn silence with which this speech was received
and the glow of enthusiasm reflected in the faces of his

360. Fred-
erick’s ad-
dress to his
generals and
staff officers,
December 3,
1757, before
his victory
at Leuthen.

361. Letter
of Frederick
the Great
written
toward the
close of the
Seven Years’
War (Aug-
ust, 1762) .

324 Readings in European History

hearers convinced Frederick that he had produced the effect
he desired. With a gentle smile he continued:]

I was convinced that no one of you would wish to leave
me ; I count then, absolutely, on your faithful help and on
certain victory. Should I not return to reward you for your
devotion, the fatherland itself must do it. Return now to
camp and repeat to your troops what you have heard from
me. [Then, becoming once more the stern ruler, he an-
nounces the punishment that awaits the slightest hesitation
in following orders.] The regiment of cavalry that does
not immediately on the receipt of orders throw itself upon
the enemy I will have unmounted immediately after the
battle and make it a garrison regiment. The battalion of
infantry that even begins to hesitate, no matter what the
danger may be, shall lose its flags and its swords and have
the gold lace stripped from its uniforms.

And now, gentlemen, farewell ; erelong we shall either
have defeated the enemy or we shall see each other no
more.

Before the end of the long and exhausting war Fred-
erick had met with several crushing reverses, and his
resources had dwindled to almost nothing. He writes
the following letters, not long before peace was finally
concluded, to his trusted French friend, d’Argens.

... I am obliged to cover Schweidnitz from all sides
against this Daun [an Austrian commander], who keeps a
dozen subordinates roaming about trying to defeat our plans.
This compels me to give unremitting attention to the move-
ments of the enemy and to procuring information. You
may infer, therefore, that my poor head is scarcely equal to
poetry. That verse that you criticise shall certainly be cor-
rected, — that is nothing ; but I beg you to wait till the end
of our siege, which so far goes well. I have not the least
vanity, I assure you; and I think chance and my troops are
responsible for so large a share in the success of my un-
dertakings that I have no mania for dispatching couriers ;

Rise of Russia and Prussia 325

nevertheless, if it will give you pleasure, they shall certainly
be sent. . . .

For the present I am confining my attention to the opera-
tion I have undertaken. There is quite enough to keep a
young man busy, but what a life for an old man, worn out
and broken down like me, whose memory is beginning to
fail and who feels his senses weakening and his force of
character declining ! There is a fitting time of life for all
things. At my age, my dear marquis, books, conversation,
a comfortable armchair by the fire, — these are all that remain
for me, and then in a few moments the grave.

Farewell, my dear marquis; may you live happily and in
tranquillity and not forget me.

Another letter to the same, dated at Bbgendorf, Sep-
tember 27, 1762, reads as follows :

I am so accustomed to reverses and mishaps and I am
becoming so indifferent to the events of this world, that
things which would formerly have made the most profound
impression upon me now glide but lightly over my spirit. I
can assure you, my dear marquis, that I have really made
some progress in the practice of philosophy. I am growing
old, the end of my days draws near, and my spirit is grad-
ually detaching itself from the fleeting spectacle of this
world, which I shall leave so soon. The circumstances of
the past winter, the revolution in Russia, the perfidy of the
English, — what subjects for cultivating one’s reason if one
but reflects on them ! And who would wish to keep low
company all one’s life in this worst of all possible worlds ?
I mention only a few of my causes for disgust, but I have
had so many during this war that my capacity for feeling is
exhausted, and a callus of insensibility and indifference has
formed that makes me good for nothing.

I write you naturally, just as I feel. It will pain you a
little, but believe me that it is a great relief to unburden
one’s heart, and consider the situation in which I am placed.

Farewell, my dear marquis ; I will write no more this
time, and I close with assurances of my sincere friendship.

362. Fred-
erick de-
clares that
he is grow-
ing old.

326

Readmgs in European History

363. Fred-
erick the
Great de-
clares that
Germany
has no great
writers
(1780).

VII. Frederick the Great’s Estimate of German
Literature

Frederick always cultivated the society of French
men of letters, and his own voluminous works are written
in French. He had little respect for the achievements
of his own countrymen in literature, although when he
wrote the following contemptuous estimate Lessing had
finished his work and Goethe was thirty-one years old
and had published, beside Goetz von Berlichingen, The
Sorrows of Wertiier, the first book of Wilhelm Meister,
and many of his lyrics. Schiller, who was but twenty-
one, published his first tragedy the following year.

You are surprised, sir, that I do not add my voice to yours
in applauding the progress which, according to you, German
literature is making from day to day. I love our common
country as well as you, and for that very reason I abstain
from praising it until it has deserved praise. . . .

Let us look for a moment at our country ; I hear a jargon
spoken which is devoid of every grace, and which each one
manipulates according to his own fancy, with no discrimina-
tion in the choice of terms, — indeed, the most appropri-
ate and expressive words are wholly neglected, and the real
meaning is drowned in a flood of verbiage.

I have been trying to unearth our Homers, our Virgils,
our Anacreons, our Horaces, our Demosthenes, our Ciceros,
our Thucydides, our Livys ; but I find nothing ; I might
have spared my pains. Let us be sincere and admit frankly
that up to this time literature has not flourished on our soil.
Germany has had its philosophers who can bear compari-
son with the ancients, — who have even surpassed them in
some respects, — but as to belles-lettres^ let us confess our
poverty. . . .

In order to convince yourself of the bad taste that reigns
in Germany, you have only to frequent the theater. There

Rise of Russia and Prussia

327

you will see presented the abominable plays of Shakespeare
translated into our language, and the whole audience trans-
ported with delight by these absurd farces, fit only for the
savages of Canada. I speak of them thus because they sin
against every rule of the drama. These rules are not arbi-
trary : Aristotle in his Poetics prescribes the unity of time,
of place, and of action as the only possible means of making
tragedy interesting.

One may perhaps forgive Shakespeare for his fantastic
eccentricities, for one must not expect maturity of the arts at
the time of their birth. But now we have a Goetz von Ber-
lichingen appearing on the scene, a detestable imitation of
those wretched English plays, and the pit applauds it en-
thusiastically and demands the repetition of its disgusting
platitudes. ...

Give us Medicis for rulers and we shall see genius unfold ;
without an Augustus we cannot have Virgils. We shall yet
have our classic authors ; every one will wish to read them
alike for pleasure and profit; our neighbors will learn Ger-
man, and our language, polished and perfected by our writers,
will be spoken, not in court circles only, but throughout the
length and breadth of Europe. This happy time is not yet
here, but it approaches. I prophesy that it will come, though
I shall not see it ; my age forbids that hope. I am like
Moses : I see the promised land from afar, but I may not
enter it. Pardon me the comparison. I will let Moses alone,
— I do not mean to put myself on a level with him in any
respect; but as for the “ promised land ” of our literature, it
is far more to be desired than the bleak and arid rocks of
the sterile Idumea.

Progress of
literature
dependent
on the foster-
ing care
of royal
patrons.

VIII. The Partition of Poland

Maria Theresa was heartily ashamed of her part in
the First Partition of Poland. She writes as follows to
Archduke Ferdinand, her son, explaining and excusing
her course.

328

Readings in EiLVopean History

364. Letter
of Maria
Theresa on
the partition
of Poland.

A. Refer-
ences.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

Laxenburg, September 17, [1772].

. . Firmian will receive a lengthy document with in-

structions in regard to our present situation, our engage-
ments toward Russia, Prussia, and the Turks, but particularly
in regard to this unfortunate partition of Poland, which is
costing me ten years of my life. It will make plain the
whole unhappy history of that affair. How many times have
I refused to agree to it ! But disaster after disaster heaped
upon us by the Turks ; misery, famine, and pestilence at
home; no hope of assistance either from France or England,
and the prospect of being left isolated and threatened with
a war both with Russia and Prussia, — it was all these con-
siderations that finally forced me to accede to that unhappy
proposal, which will remain a blot on my whole reign. God
grant that I be not held responsible for it in the other world !
I confess that I cannot keep from talking about this affair.
I have taken it so to heart that it poisons and imbitters all
my days, which even without that are sad enough. I must
stop writing about it at once, or I shall worry myself into
the blackest melancholy. . . .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sketch of Russian History in the i8th Century : Schwill, Modern
Europe., pp. 215-229.

Peter the Great and Charles XII; Wakeman, Etiropean History,
iy/8-i’/ip, Chapter XIII, pp. 289-310.

Europe at the Opening of the i8th Century : Hassall, European
History, lyip-iySg, Chapter I, pp. 1-25.

Review of Prussian History in the 17th and i8th Centuries :
Schwill, pp. 230-247.

Frederick the Great and the Seven Years’ War : Henderson,
Short History of Germany, Vol. II, pp. 148-181 ; Hassall, Chapter IX,
pp. 244-283.

Frederick the Great in Peace: Henderson, Vol. II, pp. 182-218.

First Partition of Poland : Hassall, pp. 302-322.

Rambaud, History of Russia, 2 vols. Much the best general account.
It may be supplemented by the same author’s little volume on The
Expansion of Russia.

Rise of Russia a7id Prussia 329

Schuyler, Peter the Great, 1884. The standard life of the tsar in
English.

''N A1.1SZ^WSKI, Life of Peter the Great. From the French. Excellent
and recent.

Bain, Charles XII and the Collapse of the Swedish E^npire, 1682-
7779, 1899 (Heroes of the Nations).

Stanley Lane-Poole, Turkey (Story of the Nations). By a well-
known authority.

Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks. Based upon the great Ger-
man work of Von Hammer, which is in 10 volumes.

Longman, Frederick the Great, and (more recent) Reddaway, Fred-
erick the Great and the Rise of Prussia, 1904 (Heroes of the Nations).

Carlyle, Thomas, Frederick the Great, 3 vols. A famous work
giving many extracts from Frederick’s letters and other sources.

Perkins, France under Louis XV, 2 vols. Excellent for the role of
France in the middle of the eighteenth century.

Bright, Maria Theresa, 1897. A little volume in the Foreign States-
men Series.

Bruckner, Peter der Grosse, 1879 (Oncken Series).^

Tuttle, History of Prussia, 4 vols. Vol. I, to the accession of Fred-
erick II; Vols. II^IV, reign of Frederick to 1757.

Droysen, Geschichte der preussischen Politik, 14 vols., ending with
the year 1756. The most elaborate history of Prussia, by an excellent
historian.

Erdmansdorfer, Deutsche Geschichte vom Westphdlischen Frieden
bis zum Regierungsa^itritt Friedrichs des Grossen, 2 vols., 1892—1893
(Oncken Series). Well illustrated.

Von Zwiedineck-Sudenhorst, Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitraum
der Griindung des preussischen Konigthums, 2 vols., 1890-1894.

Berner, Geschichte des preussischen Staats, 1891. Elaborately
illustrated.

W ADDINGTON, II Acquisition de la couromte royale de Prusse par les
Hohenzollern, 1888.

Forster, F., Friedrich Wilhelm der Erste, 3 vols., 1834-1835. An
excellent old life of Frederick’s father, with much illustrative material.

There are naturally a good many books about Frederick the Great.
The chief sources for his reign are his own works, especially his let-
ters: (Fuvres de Frideric le Grand, 30 vols., Berlin, 2d ed., 1846-1857;

1 A bibliography of works on Russia may be found in Lavisse and Rambaud
Histoire Generate, Vol. VI, pp. jiy sqq.

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

Frederick
the Great.

The Seven
Years’ War.

330 Readings in European History

Politische Korrespondenz Friedrichs des Grossen, 25 vols., 1879
edited by Koser and other scholars. Reinhold Koser is perhaps the
greatest living authority on Frederick : Besides many articles, he has
published Friedrich der Grosse als Kro7tprinz, 1886, and an account of
his reign in Konig Friedrich der Grosse, 2 vols., 4to, 2d ed., 1901-1903.
Lavisse has dealt with the earlier years of Frederick ; La Jeu?tesse du
Grand Frederic, 1891, and Le Grand Frederic avattt Pavettanetit. See
also, Paul-Dubois, Frederic le Grand d'apres sa correspondance
politique.

There are two careful histories of the Seven Years’ War : Schaefer,
Der Siebenjdhrige KiHeg, 3 vols., 1867-1874, and Waddington, La
Guerre de Sept Afzs, 1899 sqq. Three volumes of this French work have
appeared, completing the year 1759. To these may be added Krones,
Handbuch der Geschichte Oesterreichs,'V o\&. III-IV ; Arneth, Geschichte
Maria Theresas, 10 vols., 1863-1879, the standard biography; and sev-
eral monographs by the Due DE Broglie, Frederic LL et Maria Theresa,
1883, etc.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND

I. The English go Northeast in Search of Trade

We learn from the following account the reasons why
English merchants set forth as early as the reign of
Queen Mary in search of trade. Sailing around North
Cape, they reached Russia and established communi-
cations with that country

At what time our merchants perceived the commodities
and wares of England to be in small request with the coun-
tries and people about us, and near unto us, and that those
merchandises which strangers, in the time and memory of
our ancestors, did earnestly seek and desire were now
neglected and the price thereof abated, although by us
carried to their own ports, and all foreign merchandises in
great account and their prices wonderfully raised ; certain
grave citizens of London, and men of great wisdom, and
careful of the good of their country, began to think with
themselves how this mischief might be remedied ; neither
was a remedy (as it then appeared) wanting to their desires
for the avoiding of so great an inconvenience ; for seeing
that the wealth of the Spaniards and Portuguese, by the
discovery and search of new trades and countries, was
marvelously increased, supposing the same to be a course
and means for them also to obtain the like, they thereupon
resolved upon a new and strange navigation. And whereas
at the same time one Sebastian Cabot, a man in those days

1 See above, pp. 301 sq., for an account of Ivan the Terrible by one
of these early explorers.

331

365. The
English set
out for the
northeastern
regions in
search of
trade (1553).
(From
Hakluyt’s
Voyages.')

332

Readings in Eitropean History

very renowned, happened to be in London, they began first
of all to deal and consult diligently with him, and after
much speech and conference together, it was at last con-
cluded that three ships should be prepared and furnished
out for the search and discovery of the northern part of the
world, to open a way and passage to our men for travel to
new and unknown kingdoms.

And whereas many things seemed necessary to be re-
garded in this so hard and difficult a matter, they first made
choice of certain grave and wise persons in manner of a
senate, or company, which should lay their heads together
and give their judgments and provide things requisite and
profitable for all occasions; by this company it was thought
expedient that a certain sum of money should publicly be
collected to serve for the furnishing of so many ships. And
lest any private man should be too much oppressed and
charged, a course was taken that every man willing to be of
the society should disburse a portion of twenty and five
pounds apiece, so that in a short time by this means, the sum
of six thousand pounds being gathered, the three ships were
bought, the most part whereof they provided to be newly
built and trimmed.

But in this action I wot not whether I may more admire
the care of the merchants, or the diligence of the ship-
wrights ; for the merchants, they get very strong and well-
seasoned planks for the building ; the shipwrights, they,
with daily travail and their greatest skill, do fit them for
the dispatch of the ships ; they calk them, pitch them, and
among the rest they make one most stanch and firm, by an
excellent and ingenious invention. For they had heard that
in certain parts of the ocean a kind of worm is bred which
many times pierceth and eateth through the strongest oak
that is, and therefore that the mariners and the rest to be
employed in this voyage might be free and safe from this
danger, they cover a piece of the keel of the ship with thin
sheets of lead ; and having thus built the ships, and furnished
them with armor and artillery, then followed a second care
no less troublesome and necessary than the former, namely,

The Expansion of England

333

the provision of victuals, which was to be made according
to the time and length of the voyage.

And whereas they afore determined to have the east part
of the world sailed unto, and yet that the sea towards the
same was not open, except they kept the northern track,
where as yet it was doubtful whether there were any passage,
yea or no, they resolved to victual the ships for eighteen
months, which they did for this reason : for our men being
to pass that huge and cold part of the world, they, wisely
foreseeing it, allow them six months’ victual to sail to the
place, so much more to remain there, if the extremity of the
winter hindered their return, and so much more also for
the time of their coming home.

II. How THE English got a Foothold in India

Toward fifty years after the English had discovered
Russia they began to turn their attention to India, and in
i6oi the East India Company was chartered. In 1614
Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the
court of Jehangir, the Mongol emperor of Hindustan.
Sir Thomas was to arrange a commercial treaty and to
secure for the East India Company sites for commercial
agencies, — “ factories,” as they were called. Sir Thomas
was successful, and Jehangir sent the following remark-
ably polite letter to James I.

When your Majesty shall open this letter let your royal
heart be as fresh as a sweet garden. Let all people make
reverence at your gate ; let your throne be advanced higher;
amongst the greatness of the kings of the prophet Jesus, let
your Majesty be the greatest, and all monarchies derive
their counsel and wisdom from your breast as from a foun-
tain, that the law of the majesty of Jesus may revive and
flourish under your protection.

The letter of love and friendship which you sent and the
presents, tokens of your good affection toward me, I have

366. Letter
of the Great
Mogul to
James I
welcoming
English
traders.

334

Readings in European History

received by the hands of your ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe
(who well deserveth to be your trusted servant), delivered to
me in an acceptable and happy hour; upon which mine eyes
were so fixed that I could not easily remove them to any other
object, and have accepted them with great joy and delight.

Upon which assurance of your royal love I have given my
general command to all the kingdoms and ports of my
dominions to receive all the merchants of the English nation
as the subjects of my friend ; that in what place soever
they choose to live, they may have reception and residence
to their own content and safety ; and what goods soever
they desire to sell or buy, they may have free liberty without
any restraint; and at what port soever they shall arrive, that
neither Portugal nor any other shall dare to molest their
quiet ; and in what city soever they shall have residence, I
have commanded all my governors and captains to give them
freedom answerable to their own desires ; to sell, buy, and to
transport into their country at their pleasure.

For confirmation of our love and friendship, I desire your
Majesty to command your merchants to bring in their ships
of all sorts of rarities and rich goods fit for my palace; and
that you be pleased to send me your royal letters by every
opportunity, that I may rejoice in your health and prosperous
affairs ; that our friendship may be interchanged and eternal.

Your Majesty is learned and quick-sighted as a prophet, and
can conceive so much by few words that I need write no more.
The God of heaven give you and us increase of honor.

367. A The English naturally got into trouble immediately

accounro?'^ with the Dutch traders in the East Indies. There is

hostility of probably another side to the story which follows,
the Dutch to

English ^ relatio7i of the Frefichitien which lately arrived mto France
tr3.d6rs

^ of Edpp^ out of the East Indies concerning the
wrongs aJid abuses which the Hollanders had lately done to
the Efiglish there :

Two English ships coming to Banda, in course of trade
and traffic, the Hollanders assaulted with certain of their

The Expansion of England

335

ships, which English ships in their resistance and defense
the said Hollanders took, slew seven or eight of their men
(whereof one was a chief factor), chained the captain, mer-
chants, and mariners, and put the mariners into their galleys.
All the munition and victuals in the said English ships did
the Hollanders take out and carried the same ashore, chal-
lenging all to be theirs as their proper inheritance, and there-
fore will be lords of the same.

The Hollanders likewise took an English bark going from
Bantam^ to Jacatra, slew some of her men, wounded many
more, chained the captain and mariners, and carried away
the said bark at the stern of one of their ships into Bantam
Road, and there anchored close by the admiral of the
English in most despiteful and daring manner, making their
vaunts that they were the chief people of all Europe; and to
make a show of the same they advanced their own arms and
colors, and under them placed the colors of England and
France, and then shot at the said English and French colors
in most contemptuous and disdainful manner.

At Bantam the English and Hollanders had great disputes,
insomuch as it was. verily thought they would have fought
together in the road, for the general of the Hollanders had
brought thither fourteen great ships, ready to fight, where the
English had nine, which they fitted for defense; but they
fought not, for the governor of Bantam forbade them to
fight in his road, and threatened them that if they did fight
contrary to his command he would cut the throats of all their
men that he should find upon the land.

The 27th of November the Hollanders proclaimed war
against all the English at the Mulluccoes, Banda, and Am-
boyna, threatening to make one and all prize and to put them
to the edge of the sword ; which proclamation of theirs they
fixed upon the doors of their lodgings at Bantam, challen-
ging all to be theirs as their proper inheritance.

1 Bantam was originally the chief settlement of the Dutch in Java,
near the Strait of Sunda, somewhat to the west of the present important
port of Batavia.

336

Readings in European History

368. India
under the
later Moguls.
(From
Bernier.)

The Moguls
claim to be
descended
from Timur.

From a letter
of Bernier’s
to Colbert.

III. Condition of India before the English
Conquest

In 1655 a Frenchman, Francois Bernier, made a jour-
ney to Hindustan, and there became the court physician
of the Great Mogul. He wrote an account of his jour-
ney and a number of letters. A letter addressed to Col-
bert, which gives an admirable description of the state
of India and the relations of the Great Mogul to the
subject princes and peoples, is included in the following
extract.

He who reigned there was called Chah-Jehan, — that is
to say, king of the world ; who, according to the history
of that country, was son of Jehan-Guyre, which signifieth
conqueror of the world; grandchild to Ekbar, which is
great ; and thus ascending by Houmayons, or the fortunate,
father of Ekbar, and his other predecessors, he was the
tenth of those that were descended from that Timur-Lengue,
which signifieth the lame prince, commonly and corruptly
called Tamerlane, so renowned for his conquests ; who mar-
ried his near kinswoman, the only daughter of the prince
of the nations of Great Tartary, called Moguls, who have
left and communicated their name to the strangers that now
govern Indostan, the country of the Indians ; though those
that are employed in public charges and offices, and even
those that are listed in the militia, be not all of the race of
the Moguls, but strangers and nations gathered out of ail
countries, most of them Persians, some Arabians, and some
Turks. For, to be esteemed a Mogul it is enough to be a
stranger, white of face, and a Mohammedan ; in distinction
as well to the Indians, who are brown and pagans, as to the
Christians of Europe, who are called Franguis. . . .

My lord, you may have seen before this, by the maps of
Asia, how great every way is the extent of the empire of the
Great Mogul, which is commonly called India or Indostan.

The Expajision of Englmid

337

I have not measured it mathematically ; but to speak of it
according to the ordinary journeys of the country, after the
rate of three whole months’ march, traversing from the fron-
tiers of the kingdom of Golconda as far as beyond Kazni
near Kandahar, which is the first town of Persia, I cannot
but persuade myself otherwise but that it is at least five
times as far as from Paris to Lyons, — that is, about five
hundred common leagues. . . .

In this same extent of country there are sundry nations
which the Mogul is not full master of, most of them still
retaining their particular sovereigns and lords that neither
obey him nor pay him tribute but from constraint ; many
that do little, some that do nothing at all, and some also
that receive tribute from him. . . .

Such are the Pathans, a Mohammedan people issued from
the side of the river Ganges toward Bengal, who before the
invasion of the Moguls in India had taken their time to
make themselves potent in many places, and chiefly at Delhi,
and to render many rajahs thereabout their tributaries.
These Pathans are fierce and warlike, and even the mean-
est of them, though they be but waiting men and porters,
are still of a very high spirit, being often heard to say, by
way of swearing, “ Let me never be king of Delhi, if it be
not so”; a people that despise the Indians, heathens, and
Moguls, and mortally hate the last, still remembering what
they were formerly, before they were by them driven away
from their large principalities, and constrained to retire
hither and thither. . . .

Of the like sort are more than an hundred rajahs, or con-
siderable heathen sovereigns, dispersed through the whole
empire, some near to, others remote from, Agra and Delhi ;
amongst whom there are about fifteen or sixteen that are very
rich and puissant ; such are Rana (who formerly was, as it
were, emperor of the rajahs, and who is said to be of the prog-
eny of King Porus), Jesseigne, and Jessomseigne, who are so
great and powerful that if they three alone should combine
they would hold him [i.e. the Great Mogul] back ; each of
them being able in a very short time to raise and bring into

Extent of
Hindustan.

Tributary

peoples.

The haughty
Moham-
medan
Pathans.

The rajahs.

338

Readmgs in Europemi History

369. Au-
rangzeb fore-
casts the
dissolution
of the
Mogul’s
empire.

the field twenty-five thousand horse, better troops than the
Mogul’s. These cavaliers are called rajipous, or children of
the rajahs. These are men who, as I have said elsewhere,
carry swords from father to son, and to whom the rajahs
allot land on condition that they be always ready to appear
on horseback when the rajah commands. They can endure
much hardship, and they want nothing but good order and
discipline to make them good soldiers. . . .

The Mogul is obliged to keep these rajahs in his service
for sundry reasons : the first, because the militia of the
rajahs is very good (as was said above) and because there
are rajahs (as was intimated also) any one of whom can
bring into the field above twenty-five thousand men ; the
second, the better to bridle the other rajahs and to reduce
them to reason, when they cantonize, or when they refuse to
pay tribute, or when, out of fear or other cause, they will
not leave their country to serve in the army when the Mogul
requireth it; the third, the better to nourish jealousies and
keenness among them, by favoring and caressing one more
than the other, which is done to that degree that they pro-
ceed to fight with one another very frequently.

Aurangzeb, who died in 1707, was the last Great
Mogul of importance. He saw in his old age that anarchy
was likely to come when he was gone, and his farewell
to this vain world is sad indeed. He thus writes to a
friend :

Health to thee ! My heart is near thee. Old age is
arrived : weakness subdues me, and strength has forsaken
all my members. I came a stranger into this world and a
stranger I depart. I know nothing of myself, what I am, or
for what I am destined. The instant which has passed in
power hath left only sorrow behind it. I have not been the
guardian and protector of the empire. My valuable time
has been passed vainly. I had a patron in my own dwelling
(conscience), but his glorious light was unseen by my dim
sight. Life is not lasting ; there is no vestige of departed

The Expansion of England

339

breath, and all hopes from futurity are lost. The fever has
left me ; but nothing remains of me but skin and bone. . . .
The camp and followers, helpless and frightened, are like my-
self, full of alarms, restless as quicksilver. Separated from
their lord, they know not if they have a master or not.

I brought nothing into this world, and, except the infirm-
ities of man, carry nothing out. I have a dread for my sal-
vation, and with what torments I may be punished. Though
I have strong reliance on the mercies and bounties of God,
yet, regarding my actions, fear will not quit me ; but when
I am gone reflection will not remain. Come then what may,
I have launched my vessel in the waves. Though Provi-
dence will protect the camp, yet, regarding appearances, the
endeavors of my sons are indispensable. Give my last prayers
to my grandson, whom I cannot see, but the desire affects
me. The Began [his daughter] appears afflicted ; but God
is the only judge of hearts. The foolish thoughts of women
produce nothing but disappointment. Farewell, farewell,
farewell.

IV. How England established her Control over
India

It was the cruel treatment of the English settlers at
Calcutta by the officers of the subahdar at Bengal that
led Clive to hasten northward, where he gained his
memorable victory over the subahdar at Plassey. An
officer of the East India Company then in India thus
describes the episode of the “ Black Hole,” which indi-
cates the dangers to which the English merchants were
subjected.

The principal officer [of the nabob] commanded the pris-
oners to go into one of the rooms which stood behind them
along the veranda. This was the common dungeon of the
garrison, who used to call it the “ Black Hole.” Many of
the prisoners, knowing the place, began to expostulate ; upon

370. The
“ Black
Hole” of
Calcutta
(June 20,

1756).

340

Readings in Enropea7i History

which the officer ordered his men to cut down those who
hesitated, on which the prisoners obeyed. But before all
were within, the room was so thronged that the last entered
with difficulty. The guard immediately closed and locked
the door, confining one hundred and forty-six persons in a
room not twenty feet square, with only two small windows,
and these obstructed by the veranda.

It was the hottest season of the year, and the night un-
commonly sultry even at this season. The excessive pres-
sure of their bodies against one another and the intolerable
heat which prevailed as soon as the door was shut, con-
vinced the prisoners that it was impossible to live through
the night in this horrible confinement; and violent attempts
were immediately made to force the door, but without effect,
for it opened inward ; on which many began to give a loose
to rage. . . .

The first effect of their confinement was a profuse and
continued sweat, which soon produced intolerable thirst,
succeeded by excruciating pains in the breast, with difficulty
of breathing little short of suffocation. Various means were
tried to obtain more room and more air. Every one stripped
off his clothes ; every hat was put in motion ; and these
methods affording no relief, it was proposed that they should
all sit down on their hams at the same time, and after remain-
ing a little while in this posture rise all together. This fatal
expedient was thrice repeated before they had been confined
an hour ; and every time several, unable to rear themselves up
again, fell and were trampled to death by their companions.

Attempts were again made to force the door, which, fail-
ing as before, redoubled their rage ; but the thirst increas-
ing, nothing but “ Water ! water ! ” became soon after the
general cry. The good jejnautdar immediately ordered some
skins of water to be brought to the windows ; but instead of
relief, his benevolence became a more dreadful cause of
destruction ; for the sight of the water threw every one
into such excessive agitations and ravings that, unable to
resist this violent impulse of nature, none could wait to be
regularly served, but each with the utmost ferocity battled

The Expansion of England

341

against those who were likely to get it before him ; and in
these conflicts many were either pressed to death by the
efforts of others or suffocated by their own. . . .

Before midnight all who were alive and had not partaken
of the air at the windows were either in a lethargic stupe-
faction or raving with delirium. Every kind of invective
and abuse was uttered in hopes of provoking the guard to
put an end to their miseries by firing into the dungeon ;
and whilst some were blaspheming the Creator with the
frantic execrations of torment and despair, Heaven was im-
plored by others with wild and incoherent prayers ; until the
weaker, exhausted by these agitations, at length laid down
quietly and expired on the bodies of their dead or agonizing
friends. . . .

All regards of compassion and affection were lost, and no
one would recede or give way for the relief of another.
Faintness sometimes gave short pauses of quiet, but the
first motion of any one renewed the struggle through all,
under which ever and anon some one sunk to rise no more.
At two o’clock not more than fifty remained alive. But even
this number were too many to partake of the saving air, the
contest for which and for life continued until the morn, long
implored, began to break. . . .

An officer, sent by the nabob, came and inquired if the
English chief still survived ; and soon after the same man
returned with an order to open the prison. The dead were
so thronged, and the survivors had so little strength remain-
ing, that they were employed near half an hour in removing
the bodies which lay against the door before they could
clear a passage to go out one at a time ; when of one hun-
dred and forty-six who went in no more than twenty-three
came out alive, — the ghastliest forms that were ever seen
alive.

The following extract is from a letter by Clive de-
scribing his famous victory at Plassey, north of Calcutta.
This battle completely demonstrated the inability of
native armies to cope with Europeans, and marked the

342

Readings m European History

371. Clive’s
own account
of his victory
at Plassey
(June 23,
1757)-

beginning of British control in Bengal. According to his
account, Clive had about one thousand Europeans, two
thousand Sepoys, and eight pieces of cannon.

At daybreak we discovered the nabob’s army moving
towards us, consisting, as we since found, of about fifteen
thousand horse and thirty-five thousand foot, with upwards
of forty pieces of cannon. They approached apace, and by six
began to attack with a number of heavy cannon, supported
by the whole army, and continued to play on us very briskly
for several hours, during which our situation was of the
utmost service to us, being lodged in a large grove with
good mud banks. To succeed in an attempt on their cannon
was next to impossible, as they were planted in a manner
round us and at considerable distances from each other.
We therefore remained quiet in our post, in expectation of a
successful attack upon their camp at night. About noon the
enemy drew off their artillery and retired to their camp. . . .

On finding them make no great effort to dislodge us, we
proceeded to take possession of one or two more eminences
lying very near an angle of their camp, from whence, and an
adjacent eminence in their possession, they kept a smart
fire of musketry upon us. They made several attempts to
bring out their cannon, but our advanced fieldpieces played
so warmly and so well upon them that they were always
driven back. Their horse exposing themselves a good deal
on this occasion, many of them were killed, and among the
rest four or five officers of the first distinction ; by which the
whole army being visibly dispirited and thrown into some
confusion, we were encouraged to storm both the eminence
and the angle of their camp, which were carried at the same
instant, with little or no loss ; though the latter was defended
(exclusively of blacks) by forty French and two pieces of
cannon; and the former by a large body of blacks, both
horse and foot. On this a general rout ensued, and we pur-
sued the enemy six miles, passing upwards of forty pieces
of cannon they had abandoned, with an infinite number of
hackeries (carts) and carriages filled with baggage of all

The Expansion of England

343

kinds. ... It is computed there are killed of the enemy about
five hundred. Our loss amounted to only twenty-two killed
and fifty wounded, and those chiefly blacks.

For a hundred years after the battle of Plassey the
English steadily extended their power, but in 1857 the
terrible mutiny broke out in which the native troops
(Sepoys) turned upon their masters. After a fierce
struggle the English put down the revolt and banished
the last Mogul, who had become a mere figurehead. An
English officer who witnessed the mutiny thus describes
the conditions which the English faced in extending their
control over the motley hordes of India.

The great convulsion known as the Indian Mutiny broke
out in May, 1857, consequent directly on the excitement
and ill feeling engendered in the Bengal army by the well-
known cartridge incident.^ Any such military outbreak
would naturally cause much civil disturbance and find
numerous supporters outside the army, but the wide range
and virulence of the general commotion that ensued were
exceptional, and the rising was throughout marked by a
variety of phases and by singular episodes, for which the
disaffection of the troops and the cartridge incident do not
of themselves adequately account. . . .

Up to the year 1856, the year before the outbreak, there
had been for a whole century a continuous, aggre'ssive ad-
vance of the British power, till it completed the ring fence
of the empire by the annexation of Oude. During all that
time it had either been engaged in actual conflict or had
been forming dominant relations with the several races of
the country, and had reduced them one after another to sub-
jection ; some provinces being brought under its direct
administration and others being left as feudatory or vassal
states under their native rulers. At the start the old Mogul

1 The troops objected, on religious grounds, to handling a cartridge
smeared with animal grease.

372. Review
of the Eng-
lish progress
in India
from 1757 to
1857. (By
Lieutenant-
General
Innes.)

344

Readings in EiLvopean History

dominion had been in a hopeless state of decay, leading to all
the horrors of internecine war, and some of the native prin-
cipalities had gladly turned for safety to the shelter of Eng-
lish protection and supremacy. But the great mass of the
people had been brought under our rule by conquest or for-
cible annexation.

With ruling dynasties thus set aside, reduced, or crushed,
with great races humiliated, and bitterness and misery spread
broadcast by the loss of power and place and property, it
would be an outrage on common sense to doubt that we had
created a host of enemies. . . . The benefits of civilized
rule, of the Pax Brita7inica^ were felt only skin deep, and the
old fierce instincts, the outcome of centuries of strife and
oppression, were still in the ascendant. The memory of in-
juries was still keen and vivid, the newer cases helping to
recall the old ones to mind, and to reopen sores that might
otherwise have been getting healed ; so that, briefly, the
mood and temper which prevailed were those of a conquered
people who had wrongs and humiliations to remember, and
were chafing at having to endure the sway of aliens in race
and creed. There existed, in fact, under the best circum-
stances, a mass of constant disaffection, and whole hosts of
malcontents.

Of these the most powerful and dangerous were the
Mussulmans. The entire Mohammedan population were as a
body rebels at heart, and resented the Christian supremacy,
if only on religious grounds and from fanatical pride ; and
the Moguls of the Upper Provinces had in addition a natural
longing to revive their old predominance and restore their
old empire.

Next may be mentioned the Mahrattas, a warlike and
unscrupulous Hindu race, who, though now split up into
rival states, had been most powerful as a confederacy, and
felt that but for the British they would have been the mas-
ters of India.

Another extensive body of malcontents consisted of those
who were actual sufferers from British conquests or annexa-
tion or from the action of British land policy.

The Expansion of England

345

And a fourth group, especially dangerous from their
spirit and energy, was formed by those who fretted at the
closing of those outlets for ambition, and the loss of those
opportunities for aggrandizement, through political intrigue
or military prowess, that had been current of old.

Such a mass of disaffection, however latent or suppressed,
was obviously a standing menace to the tranquillity of the
country, constituting a solid basis, and providing a power-
ful agency for the rousing of evil passions and the promotion
of seditious enterprise, — a sure factor in any movement or
question involving the peace or security of the state.

V. The Jesuits in North America

The spirit of the Jesuit explorers is clearly to be seen in
Father Marquette’s account of his discovery of the Mis-
sissippi River in 1673.

The feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed
Virgin — whom I have always invoked since I have been in
this country of the Outaouacs to obtain from God the grace
of being able to visit the nations who dwell along the Missis-
sippi River — was precisely the day on which Monsieur Joliet
arrived with orders to accomplish this discovery with me. . . .
We were not long in preparing all our equipment, although
we were about to begin a voyage the duration of which we
could not foresee. Indian corn, with some smoked meat,
constituted all our provisions. With these we embarked —
Monsieur Joliet and myself with five men — in two bark
canoes, fully resolved to do and suffer everything for so
glorious an undertaking.

Accordingly, on the seventeenth day of May, 1673, we
started from the mission of St. Ignace at Michilimakinac,
where I then was. The joy that we felt at being selected for
this expedition animated our courage and rendered the labor
of paddling from morning to night agreeable to us. And
because we were going to seek unknown countries we took
every precaution in our power, so that if our undertaking

373. How
Marquette
descended
the Missis-
sippi River
in 1673.

34^ Readings in Ew'opean History

•

were hazardous it should not be foolhardy. To that end we
obtained all the information that we could from the savages
who had frequented those regions ; and we even traced out
from their reports a map of the whole of that new country.
On it we indicated the rivers which we were to navigate, the
names of the peoples and of the places through which we
were to pass, the course of the Great River, and the direc-
tion we were to follow when we reached it. . . .

With all these precautions, we joyfully plied our paddles
on a portion of Lake Huron and on that of the Illinois [i.e.
Lake Michigan] and on the Bay des Puants [i.e. Green Bay].
The first nation that we came to was that of the “ Wild
Oats.” I entered their river to go and visit these peoples, to
whom we have preached the gospel for several years, — in
consequence of which there are several good Christians
among them. . . .

I told these peoples of the “ Wild Oats ” of my design to
go and discover those remote nations in order to teach them
the mysteries of our holy religion. They were greatly sur-
prised to hear it, and did their best to dissuade me. They
represented to me that I would meet nations who never
show mercy to strangers, but break their heads without
cause ; and that war was kindled between various peoples
who dwelt upon oiir route, which exposed us to the further
manifest danger of being killed by the bands of warriors
who are ever in the field. They also said that the Great
River was very dangerous for one who does not know the
difficult places ; that it was full of horrible monsters which
devoured men and canoes together ; that there was even a
demon who was heard from a great distance, who barred the
way and swallowed up all who ventured to approach him ;
finally, the heat was so excessive that it would inevitably
cause our death.

I thanked them for the good advice they gave me, but
told them that I could not follow it because the salvation of
souls was at stake, for which I would be delighted to give
my life. . . . Embarking then in our canoes, we arrived
shortly afterward at the bottom of the Bay des Puants, where

The Expansion of • England

347

our fathers labor successfully for the conversion of these
people, over two thousand of whom they have baptized while
they have been there.

. . . We left this bay to enter the river that discharges
into it. It is very beautiful at its mouth and flows gently.
It is full of bustards, ducks, teal, and other birds, attracted
thither by the wild oats, of which they are very fond. But
after ascending the river a short distance it becomes very
difficult of passage on account of both the currents and the
sharp rocks, which cut the canoes and the feet of those who
are obliged to drag them, especially when the waters are
low. . , . We continued to advance toward the Maskoutens,
where we arrived on the 7th of'June.

Here we are at Maskoutens. This word may, in Algonquin,
mean the “ Fire Nation,” — which, indeed, is the name given
to this tribe. Here is the limit of the discoveries which the
French have made, for they have not yet gone any farther.
. . . I was greatly consoled at seeing a handsome cross
erected in the middle of the village and adorned with many
white skins, red belts, bows and arrows, which these good
people had offered to the great Manitou (this is the name
which they give to God). They did this to thank him for
having pity on them during the winter by giving them an
abundance of game when they most dreaded famine. . . .

On the following day, the loth of June, two Miamis, who
were given us as guides, embarked with us in the sight of a
great crowd, who could not sufficiently express their astonish-
ment at the sight of seven Frenchmen alone in two canoes
daring to undertake so extraordinary and so hazardous an
expedition.

We knew that at three leagues from Maskoutens was a river
which discharged into the Mississippi. We knew also that
the direction we were to follow in order to reach it was west-
southwesterly. But the road is broken by so many swamps
and small lakes that it is easy to lose one’s way, especially
as the river leading thither is so full of wild oats that it
is difficult to find the channel. For this reason we greatly
needed our two guides, who safely conducted us to a portage

They leave
Green Bay
for the
Wisconsin
River.

348

Readings in Enropean History

They reach
the Missis-
sippi.

of twenty-seven hundred paces and helped us to transport
our canoes to enter that river. After which they returned
home, leaving us alone in this unknown country in the hands
of Providence. Thus we left the waters flowing to Quebec,
four hundred or five hundred leagues from here, to float
on those that would henceforth take us through strange
lands. . . .

The river on which we embarked is called the Meskousing
[i.e. Wisconsin]. It is very wide. It has a sandy bottom,
which forms various shoals that render its navigation very dif-
ficult. . . . After proceeding forty leagues on this same route,
we arrived at the mouth of our river, and at 42^4 degrees of
latitude we safely entered the Mississippi on the 17th of June
with a joy that I cannot express.

Here we are, then, on this renowned river, all of whose
peculiar features I have endeavored to note carefully. The
Mississippi River takes its rise in various lakes in the coun-
try of the northern nations. . . . We gently followed its
course, which runs toward the south and southeast, as far
as the 42d degree of latitude. . . . From time to time we
came upon monstrous fish, one of which struck our canoe
with such violence that I thought that it was a great tree
about to break the canoe in pieces. On another occasion we
saw on the water a monster with the head of a tiger, a sharp
nose like that of a wild-cat, with whiskers and straight, erect
ears. The head was gray and the neck quite black. But we
saw no more creatures of this sort. . . . When we reached
the parallel of 41 degrees 28 minutes, following the same
direction, we found that turkeys had taken the place of game
and the pisikious or wild cattle [i.e. buffaloes] that of the
other animals.

We call them “ wild cattle ” because they are very similar
to our domestic cattle. They are not longer, but axe nearly
as large again and more corpulent. When our people killed
one, three persons had much difficulty in moving it. . . .
Their heavy coat falls off in summer and the skin becomes
as soft as velvet. At that season the savages use the hides
for making fine robes, which they paint in various colors. . . .

The Expulsion of England

349

Finally, on the 25th of June, we perceived on the water’s
edge soft tracks of men and a narrow and somewhat beaten
path leading to a fine prairie. We stopped to examine it,
and thinking that it was a road which led to some village of
savages, we resolved to go and reconnoiter it. We therefore
left our two canoes under the guard of our people, strictly
charging them not to allow themselves to be surprised, after
which Monsieur Joliet and I undertook this investigation, —
a rather hazardous one for two men who exposed themselves
alone to the mercy of a barbarous and unknown people.
[The savages received us kindly, having probably recognized
us as Frenchmen, especially when they saw our black gowns.]
I spoke to them and asked them who they were. They
replied that they were Illinois, and as a token of peace they
offered us their pipes to smoke. They afterward invited us
to enter their village, where all the people impatiently awaited
us. These pipes for smoking are called in this country
“ calumets.” This word has come so much into use that in
order to be understood I shall be obliged to use it, as I shall
often have to mention these pipes. . . .

When one speaks the word “ Illinois,” it is as if one said
in their language “ the men,” — as if the other savages were
looked upon by them merely as animals. It must also be
admitted that they have an air of humanity which we have
not observed in the other nations that we have seen upon our
route. . . . We take leave of our Illinois at the end of June
about three o’clock in the afternoon. We embark in the sight
of all the people, who admire our little canoes, for they have
never seen any like them. . . .

While skirting some rocks which by their height and
length inspired awe, we saw upon one of them two painted
monsters which at first made us afraid, and upon which the
boldest savages dare not long rest their eyes. They are as
large as a calf ; they have horns on their heads like those of
deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger’s, a face
somewhat like a man’s, a body covered with scales. . . .

While we were conversing about these monsters, sailing
quietly in clear and calm water, we heard the noise of a rapid

Marquette
visits the
Illinois.

Strange
pictures on
the rocks
near Alton.

350

Readings in European History

They reach
the mouth of
the Missouri.

(Condensed.)

Reasons for
discontinuing
the descent
of the

Mississippi.

into which we were about to run. I have seen nothing more
dreadful. An accumulation of large and entire trees, branches,
and floating islands was issuing from the mouth of the river
Pekitanoui [i.e. Missouri] with such impetuosity that we could
not without great danger risk passing through it. So great
was the agitation that the water was very muddy and could
not become clear. The Pekitanoui is a river of considerable
size coming from the northwest, from a great distance, and
it discharges into the Mississippi. There are many villages
of savages along this river, and I hope by its means to dis-
cover the Vermilion or California Sea. . . .

After escaping as best we could the dangerous rapid, we
proceeded south. After a long journey we reached the large
village of Akamsea [Arkansas]. In the evening the elders
held a secret council in regard to the design entertained by
some to break our heads and rob us ; but the chief put a
stop to all these plots. After sending for us he danced the
calumet before us as a token of our entire safety, and to
relieve us of all fear he made me a present of it.

Monsieur Joliet and I held another council to deliberate
upon what we should do, — whether we should push on, or
remain content with the discovery which we had made. After
attentively considering that we were not far from the Gulf of
Mexico, the basin of which is at the latitude of 31 degrees
and 60 minutes, while we were at 33 degrees 40 minutes, we
judged that we could not be more than two or three days’
journey from it, and that beyond a doubt the Mississippi
River discharges into the Florida or Mexican gulf, and not
to the east in Virginia, whose seacoast is at 34 degrees of
latitude, — which we had passed without, however, having as
yet reached the sea, — or to the west in California, because
in that case our route would have been to the west or the
west-southwest, whereas we had always continued it toward
the south. We further considered that we exposed ourselves
to the risk of losing the results of this voyage, of which we
could give no information if we proceeded to fling ourselves
into the hands of the Spaniards, who, without doubt, would
at least have detained us as captives. Moreover we saw

The Expansion of England

351

very plainly that we were not in a condition to resist savages
allied to the Europeans, who were numerous and expert in
firing guns, and who continually infested the lower part of
the river. Finally, we had obtained all the information that
could be desired in regard to this discovery. All these reasons
induced us to decide upon returning ; this we announced to
the savages, and after a day’s rest made our preparations
for it. . . .

We therefore reascend the Mississippi, which gives us
much trouble in breasting its currents. It is true that we
leave it at about the 38th degree, which greatly shortens our
road and takes us with but little effort to the lake of the
Illinois. . . . One of the chiefs of this nation, with his
young men, escorted us to the lake of the Illinois, whence at
last, at the end of September, we reached the Bay des Puants,
from which we had started the beginning of June.

VI. The Settlements in New England and
Pennsylvania

William Hubbard, who came to New England as a
youth and graduated at Harvard College in 1642, thus
speaks in his Geiieral History of New England of the
motives which led the colonists to leave their native
land.^

Discoveries of the north parts of Virginia, being bruited
abroad amongst the western country of Europe, no doubt
filled the minds of many with expectations of famous planta-
tions likely erelong to be erected in those parts of the New
World. . . . About this time a strange impression was left
upon the minds of some religious and well-affected persons
of the English nation sojourning in a foreign country, that
some place in that remote region might be found out far
more convenient for their purpose, that seemed studious for
reformation, than hitherto they elsewhere either had or were

374. A
rather un-
sympathetic
estimate of
the New
England
colonists.

1 See above, pp. 225 sq.

352

Readings in European History

like to attain unto, under the wings of a foreign state. Which
consideration, forasmuch as it gave the first rise to the flour-
ishing plantations of New England, since erected, we shall,
in the first place, take a little notice of the occasion that
led thereunto.

Notwithstanding the bright and clear rays of the gospel
light that began to dawn and diffuse themselves throughout
the whole hemisphere of the English nation, promising an
hopeful day of reformation to arise upon them after the long
night of antichristian darkness, in the glorious reign of our
English Josiah, King Edward VI, and Queen Elizabeth of
blessed and famous memory, yet were not all that had oppor-
tunity to sit under the shadow of their royal authority so
well satisfied with every part of that so happy and hopeful
reformation by them begun as to rest contented, without
strenuous endeavors to shape and mold the business of church
discipline more to the primitive pattern.

Therefore sundry of them, having wearied themselves with
their private contrivements all the whole reign of Queen
Elizabeth, and finding little hope of bettering their condition
under her successor, resolved to try if change of air would
not afford a remedy to the distemper at last, to their griev-
ances and burdens they labored under at home. Divers,
therefore, of that persuasion that had about the year 1602
entered into a private covenant, first in the north of England,
then in the Netherlands anno 1610, to walk with God and
one with another, according to the best and primitive patterns
(as they conceived) of the word of God, finding the low and
watery situations of that country as unwholesome and infec-
tious to their bodies and national views of the place danger-
ous for their minds, by reason of bad example, as that of their
own country uncomfortable for their purses and estates : by
reason of opposition, they at last projected the transporting
themselves and their families into America.

Here follows William Penn’s letter to Robert Turner
concerning the grant of the province of Pennsylvania
from Charles II (1681).

The Expansion of England

353

Dear Friend:

My true love in the Lord salutes thee and dear Friends
that love the Lord’s precious Truth in those parts. Thine
I have ; and for my business here, know that after many
waitings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes in council, this
day my country was confirmed to me under the great seal
of England, with large powers and privileges, by the name
of Pennsylvania ; a name the king would give it in honor
of my father. I chose New Wales, being, as this, a pretty
hilly country; but Penn being Welsh for a head, as Penman-
moire in Wales, and Penrith in Cumberland, and Penn in
Buckinghamshire, the highest land in England, [the king]
called this Pennsylvania, which is the high or head wood-
lands; for I proposed, when the secretary, a Welshman,
refused to have it New Wales, Sylvania, and they added
Penn to it ; and though I much opposed it, and went to the
king to have it struck out and altered, he said it was past,
and would take it upon him; nor could twenty guineas move
the undersecretary to vary the name; for I feared lest it
should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect
in the king, as it truly was to my father, whom he often
mentions with praise. Thou mayest communicate my grant
to Friends, and expect shortly my proposals.

It is a clear and just thing, and my God that has given it
me through many difficulties will, I believe, bless and make
it the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care to the
government, that it be well laid at first. No more now, but
dear love in the Truth.

Thy true Friend,

William Penn.

VII. English Views of the Revolt of the American
Colonies

The elder Pitt thus spoke in the House of Commons,
January 20, 1775, on the growing difficulties between
the king and his American colonies.

375. How
Penn re-
ceived
his grant
from King
Charles II
(1681).

354

Readings in European History

376. Pitt on
the question
of withdraw-
ing the Eng-
lish troops
from Boston
(January,
1775)-

This resistance to your arbitrary system of taxation might
have been foreseen ; it was obvious from the nature of
things and of mankind, and, above all, from the Whiggish
spirit flourishing in that country. The spirit which now
resists your taxation in America is the same which formerly
opposed loans, benevolences, and ship money in England ;
the same spirit which called all England on its legs, and by
the Bill of Rights vindicated the English constitution ; the
same spirit which established the great, fundamental, essen-
tial maxim of your liberties, that no subject of England shall
be taxed but by his own consent.

This glorious spirit of Whiggism animates three millions
in America, who prefer poverty with liberty to gilded chains
and sordid affluence, and who will die in the defense of their
rights as men, as free men. What shall oppose this spirit,
aided by the congenial flame glowing in the breast of every
Whig in England, to the amount, I hope, of double the
American numbers? Ireland they have to a man. In that
country, joined as it is with the cause of the colonies, and
placed at their head, the distinction I contend for is and
must be observed. This country superintends and controls
their trade and navigation, but they tax themselves. And
this distinction between external and internal control is
sacred and insurmountable ; it is involved in the abstract
nature of things. Property is private, individual, absolute.
Trade is an extended and complicated consideration; it
reaches as far as ships can sail or winds can blow ; it is a
great and various machine. To regulate the numberless
movements of the several parts and combine them into effect
for the good of the whole, requires the superintending
wisdom and energy of the supreme power in the empire.
But this supreme power has no effect towards internal tax-
ation, for it does not exist in that relation ; there is no such
thing, no such idea in this constitution, as a supreme power
operating upon property. Let this distinction then remain
forever ascertained: taxation is theirs, commercial regulation
is ours. As an American, I would recognize to England her
supreme right of regulating commerce and navigation ; as

The Expansion of England

355

an Englishman by birth and principle, I recognize to the
Americans their supreme unalienable right in their property,
— a right which they are justified in the defense of to the
last extremity. To maintain this principle is the common
cause of the Whigs on the other side of the Atlantic and on
this. “ ’Tis liberty to liberty engaged,” that they will defend
themselves, their families, and their country. In this great
cause they are immovably allied : it is the alliance of God
and nature, — immovable, eternal, fixed as the firmament
of heaven.

Four years later, ho’wever, George III still saw no
reason for not stubbornly continuing the attempt to
hold the rebellious colonies at any cost.

I should think it the greatest instance among the many
I have met with of ingratitude and injustice, if it could be
supposed that any man in my dominions more ardently de-
sired the restoration of peace and solid happiness in every
part of this empire than I do; there is no personal sacrifice
I could not readily yield for so desirable an object ; but at
the same time no inclination to get out of the present diffi-
culties, which certainly keep my mind very far from a state
of ease, can incline me to enter into what I look upon as the
destruction of the empire. I have heard Lord North fre-
quently drop that the advantages to be gained by this con-
test could never repay the expense; I own that, let any war
be ever so successful, if persons will sit down and weigh the
expenses, they will find, as in the last, that it has impover-
ished the state, enriched individuals, and perhaps raised the
name only of the conquerors. But this is only weighing such
events in the scale of a tradesman behind his counter : it is
necessary for those in the station it has pleased Divine
Providence to place me to weigh whether expenses, though
very great, are not sometimes necessary to prevent what
might be more ruinous to a country than the loss of money.

The present contest with America I cannot help seeing
as the most serious in which any country was ever engaged.

377. Letter
of George III
to Lord
North on
the neces-
sity of sub-
duing the
American
colonies
(June II,
1779)*

356

Readings m EiLvopean History

It contains such a train of consequences that they must be
examined to feel its real weight. Whether the laying a tax
was deserving all the evils that have arisen from it, I should
suppose no man could allege that, without being thought
more fit for Bedlam than a seat in the senate ; but step by
step the demands of America have risen. Independence is
their object ; that certainly is one which every man, not will-
ing to sacrifice every object to a momentary and inglorious
peace, must concur with me in thinking that this country
can never submit to.

Should America succeed in that, the West Indies must
follow them, — not independence, but must for its own inter-
est be dependent upon North America. Ireland would soon
follow the same plan and be a separate state; then this island
would be reduced to itself, and soon would be a poor island
indeed, for, reduced in her trade, merchants would retire with
their wealth to climates more to their advantage, and shoals
of manufacturers would leave this country for the new empire.

These self-evident consequences are not worse than what
can arise should the Almighty permit every event to turn out
to our disadvantage; consequently this country has but one
sensible, one great line to follow, — the being ever ready to
make peace when to be obtained without submitting to terms
that in their consequence must annihilate this empire, and
with firmness to make every effort to deserve success.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Refer- The Union of Scotland and England: Green, Short History of the
ences. English People, Chapter IX, sect. 9, pp. 714-715; Gardiner, A Stu-

dent's History of Englaiid, pp. 685-686 ; Terry, A History of England,
pp. 845-849; Colby, Selections from the Sources of English History,
pp. 227-229.

Walpole’s Ministry: Andrews, History of England, pp. 437-443;
Green, Chapter IX, sect. 10; Gardiner, pp. 7 12-730; Colby, pp. 229-
237 ; Kendall, Source Book of English History, pp. 341-342.

Balance of Power — Europe at the Opening of the Eighteenth Cen-
tury: Hassall, European History, lyig-iySg, pp. 1-24.

TJie Expansion of England

357

English Settlements in North America: Green, Chapter VIII,
sect. 4; Colby, pp. 184-188; Kendall, pp. 216-219, 222-225.

Contest between France and England for Colonial Dom.inion : Gar-
diner, pp. 751-767; Green, Chapter X, sect, i ; Andrews, pp. 445-
454; Hassall, pp. 241-279 ; Terry, pp. 899-910 ; Colby, pp. 242-256 ;
Kendall, pp. 342-349.

American Independence: Green, Chapter X, sect. 2; Gardiner,
pp. 770-774, 777-798; Andrews, pp. 459-467; Colby, pp. 258-261;
Kendall, pp. 350-360; Hassall, pp. 332-349.

There are several excellent brief accounts of the expansion of Eng-
land. Perhaps the best introductory outline is Woodward, A Short
History of the Expansion of the British Empire, 2d ed., 1902.

Seeley, Expansion of England, 1883, is a suggestive but easily
overrated book.

Morris, History of Colonization, 2 vols., 1900. A general sketch of
colonization from ancient times. The second volume is largely devoted
to England, and is equipped with excellent bibliographies.

Cheyney, The Europeait Background of Americaji History, 1904.
Especially valuable for the English institutions transplanted in America.

Farrand, Basis of American History, 1904. A critical account of the
American world into which the settlers came.

Lodge, A Short History of the English Colonies in America, 1881.
A useful single-volume work.

Thwaites, The Colonies, i4.g2-ijgo, 1894, in Epochs of American
History. A remarkably compact work, with bibliographies.

Edgar, The Struggle for a Continent, 1902. The best concise history
of the Anglo-French contest in America.

Lyall, The Rise of British Doiiiinion hi India, 1893. ^®st

short account.

Hunter, Brief History of the Indian Peoples. Especially valuable
for native affairs.

There are also useful books by Malleson : The Bounders of the
Indian Empire, 1882 ; History of the Erench in India, 1868; and Final
French Struggles in India, 1878.

There is no satisfactory brief history for the eighteenth century. The
great work is that by Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth
Century, 8 vols. Not a chronological narrative, but a series of invalu-
able studies of many aspects of English life.

McCarthy, The Four Georges, 2 vols., 1885. May be used in absence
of anything better.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

Brief general
accounts of
the ex-
pansion of
England.

The English
in America.

British

India.

England
in the
eighteenth
century.

358

Readings m Eui'opeaji History

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

Expansion
of England.

England in
America.

British India.

Sydney, Engla^^d in the Eighteenth Century, 2 vols., 1891. Interest-
ing social history.

Morley’s Walpole and Burke, and Rosebery’s Pitt are useful short
essays on these statesmen.

There is no adequate general history of the expansion of England.
The nearest approach is Lucas, A Historical Geography of the British
Colonies, 5 vols., 1888-1891. The introductory volume is an excellent
outline. Useful bibliographies are given.

Egerton, a Short History of British Colonial Policy, 1897. The
best work on British colonial policy.

Seeley, Growth of British Policy, 2 vols., 1895.

Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, i66o-iy8g, 1889.
A suggestive work on the relation of sea power to expansion. The
sources for the beginnings of English expansion are to be sought in the
“Calendars of State Papers, Colonial Series,” and in the extensive pub-
lications of the Hakluyt Society, old series, 94 vols., 1847-1896; new
series, 15 vols., 1899-1904.

Doyle, The English i7^ A?nerica, 3 vols., 1882-18S7, and Osgood,
The American Colonies in the Seve^iteenth Century, 2 vols., 1904, are the
authorities for the early period of colonization.

Channing, a History of the United States, to be completed in 8 vols.
Vol. I, covering the period 1000-1660, has appeared. An insight into the
character of the colonial age is afforded by Cotton Mather’s Magnalia,
Stith’s History of Virginia, Johnson’s Wonder-Working Providence,
and Budd’s Good Order established Ut Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 1685.

For the French in America, the voluminous writings of Parkman
are indispensable.

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, edited by Thwaites, 73 vols.,
1896 A vast collection of the accounts of Jesuit explorations and
activities in America. For a full bibliography the student will turn to
Channing and Hart, Guide to the Study of American History.

There is no great authority for the whole period of British-Indian
history.

Hunter, A History of British India, 2 vols., 1899-1900. Full and
scholarly, but unfortunately broken off at the opening of the eighteenth
century.

Bruce, Aitnals of the East India Company, 3 vols., 1810. A dry
account based upon the records, extending only to the beginning of the
eighteenth century.

Orme, History of the Military Transactions of the British Natio7i in
India fro7n to ij6i, 3 parts, 1763-1778. A laborious work by an

The Expansion of Eiigland

359

old Indian servant, who had access to the Company’s records as well as
to his own large collections.

Mill, History of British India^ lo vols., 1858. A full account, but •
must be used with care.

Strachey, Hastings and the Rohilla War, removes many miscon-
ceptions of Hastings’ work in India.

Hunter, The Indian Empire, its History, People, atid Products.

Historical and descriptive.

Ilbert, The Governme?it of India, 1898. Digest of statute law, with
valuable historical introduction.

Stanhope, History of England from ijoi to 1J13, 2 vols., 5th ed.. Domestic
1889; History of England fro7n 1J13 to lySg, 7 vols., 5th ed., 1858. Dry history,
and detailed, dealing especially with political and military affairs.

The history of the century will also be sought in the lives of the
leading men: Sichel, Bolittgbroke, 2 vols., 1901-1903 ; Cox, Life of
Walpole, 3 vols., 1798; Green, Life of Chatham; Stanhope, Life of
Pitt, 4 vols., 1862. The works of Bolingbroke, Chatham, Fox, and Burke
furnish invaluable materials. The travels of Defoe and Arthur Young
are excellent contemporary descriptions of England. For full topical
bibliographies, see Traill, Social England, Vol. V, pp. 169-171,

364-365, 512-514, 626-627.

CHAPTER XXXIV

378. Uncer-
tainty and
confusion of
the Ancien
Regime.
(From
Madame de
Stael.)

THE EVE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

I. The Ancien Regime

Necker’s daughter, the gifted Madame de Stad, in her
Observations on the Fre^ich Revolution (published in 1 8 1 8),
skillfully sums up the general character of the French
government before 1789.

Among all the kingdoms of modern times France has
certainly been the most arbitrary and unsettled in its politi-
cal institutions. Perhaps the successive annexations of the
various provinces by the crown is one reason for this. Each
province brought with it its own customs and particular
claims ; the government skillfully played off the old provinces
against the new, and only gradually did the country become
a unit.

Be this as it may, there has been no law, however funda-
mental, which has not been questioned at some period.
There has been nothing which has not been viewed in the
most diverse ways. Were the kings the lawgivers of the
realm, or no ? Might they raise taxes of their free will, or
were the Estates General the representatives of the people,
to whom alone belonged the right to grant subsidies ? And
how should the Estates General be composed.? Could the
privileged orders, who had two votes out of the three, be
regarded as separate nations, who voted their taxes separately,
and might therefore withhold their aid, and so leave the
people to bear the burden of the necessary contributions to
the state ?

What were, precisely, the privileges of the clergy, who some-
times declared themselves independent of the king, sometimes
360

The Eve of the Fre7ich Revolution 36 1

of the pope ? What were exactly the prerogatives of the nobles,
who sometimes, and as late as the minority of Louis XIV, be-
lieved themselves entitled to enforce their rights by arms and
by alliances with foreign powers ; sometimes, on the other
hand, acknowledged the king to be absolute? What should
be the status of the third estate, emancipated by the kings
from serfdom, admitted to the Estates General by Philip the
Fair, and yet condemned to be always in the minority; since
it was given but one vote out of three, and its grievances,
presented to the king on its knees, were without any assured
influence?

What degree of political power rightly belonged to the par-
lements^ which at one time declared that they had no other
duties than to administer justice, and at another proclaimed
that they were Estates General in miniature, — that is, the
representatives of the representatives of the people? These
Sdjme. par lements did not recognize the jurisdiction of the
intendants who administered the provinces in the king’s name.
The king’s ministers questioned the right claimed by the pays
Teiats^ to approve new taxes in their respective provinces.

The history of France would furnish a mass of other exam-
ples of this want of fixity in the least, as well as in the great-
est, matters ; but it will suffice to cite some of the deplorable
results of this absence of rules. Persons accused of state
offenses were almost always deprived of their natural judges,
and some of them passed their whole lives in prison, where
the government had sent them on its own authority without
trial. A code of terror was maintained for the Protestants,
and cruel punishments and torture continued to exist until
the Revolution.

Arbitrary imprisonment by lettres de cachet had begun
to excite the indignation of the courts before the Revo-
lution, as the following case shows. The collection of
certain taxes was, for the sake of convenience, turned

1 Namely, those provinces which retained their ancient provincial
assemblies of the three orders.

Position of
the three
estates of
the realm.

The parle-
me7its.

Arbitrary

imprison-

ment.

362

Readings in European History

379. Protest
of a French
court of
law against
lettres de
cachet (1770).

over by the French government to a company of finan-
ciers called the “ farmers general.” These men and their
agents were commonly disliked for obvious reasons.
Toward the end of Louis XV’s reign the agents of the
“farm ” obtained a letEe de cachet for the imprisonment
of an unfortunate individual whom they mistook for an-
other man of the same name. When the prisoner was
released he brought suit against the “farmers,” who
were condemned to pay heavy damages. They applied,
however, to the king’s council, which annulled the deci-
sion ; whereupon the court which had decided the case
laid a solemn “protest ” before the king denouncing the
whole system of arbitrary imprisonment.

Sire :

Your Court of Excises,^ having been impeded in the ad-
ministration of justice by illegal acts which cannot have
emanated from your Majesty personally, have determined
that a very humble and very respectful protest should be
made to you concerning the matter. . . .

Certain agents of the “farm ’’arrested an individual named
Monnerat without observing any of the restrictions imposed
by law. Shortly afterwards an order from your Majesty was
produced in virtue of which the man was taken to the prison
of Bicetre and held there for twenty months. Yet it is not
the excessive length of the imprisonment that should most
deeply touch your Majesty. There exist in the fortress of
Bicetre subterranean dungeons which were dug long ago to
receive certain famous criminals who, after having been con-
demned to death, saved themselves by exposing their accom-
plices. It would seem that they were condemned to a life
which would have made death the preferable alternative.

1 This court (cour des aides), as well as the parle77ients, often sent
protests to the king, criticising the policy of his ministers and council.
The piotests were frequently printed, and so served to rouse and culti-
vate public opinion.

The Eve of the French Revolution 363

While it was desired that their cells should be absolutely dark,
it was necessary to admit enough air to sustain life. Accord-
ingly hollow pillars were constructed which established some
connection with the outer air without letting in any light. The
victims that are cast into these damp cells, which necessarily
become foul after a few days, are fastened to the wall by a
heavy chain and are supplied with nothing but a little straw,
and bread and water. Your Majesty will find it difficult to
believe that a man simply suspected of smuggling should be
kept in such a place of horror for more than a month.

According to the testimony of Monnerat himself, and the
deposition of a witness, it appears that after emerging from
his subterranean cell, which he calls “the black dungeon,”
he was kept for a long time in another less dark. This pre-
caution was taken for the welfare of the prisoner, since expe-
rience has shown — perhaps at the cost of a number of lives
— that it is dangerous to pass too suddenly from the black
dungeon to the open air and the light of day.

Monnerat, upon being released from prison, brought suit
for damages against the farmers general. Up to that point
the question was one of an individual. But the arrest was
illegal in form and the imprisonment a real injustice. If this
man was a smuggler, he should have been punished accord-
ing to the laws, which are very severe in this matter. But
when your Majesty grants an order for the imprisonment of
one suspected of smuggling, it is not your intention to have
the suspected person kept in confinement for nearly two
years waiting for proofs of his guilt. Now Monnerat has
always maintained, both during and since his imprisonment,
that he was not even the person for whom the order was
obtained. . . .

According to the prevailing system, whenever the farmer
of the revenue has no proof of smuggling except such as the
courts would regard as suspicious and insufficient, he resorts
to your Majesty’s orders, called lettres de cachet^ in order to
punish the offense. . . .

[By means of these arbitrary orders the most sacred rights (Condensed.)
are violated, and the victim has no means of learning who is

364

Readings in Eiu'opean History

his persecutor. If any one who is able to impose upon your
Majesty and procure a lettre de cachet is to be shielded from
the courts,] how indeed can we be said to live to-day under
any laws, sire, since such orders have prodigiously increased
of late and are granted for all sorts of reasons and for personal
considerations ? Formerly they were reserved for affairs of
state, and then, sire, it was proper that the courts should
respect the necessary secrecy of your administration. Subse-
quently these orders began to be granted in certain interest-
ing cases, as, for example, when the sovereign was touched
by the tears of a family which dreaded disgrace.^ To-day
they are considered necessary every time a common man
offers any slight to a person of consideration, — as if persons
of quality had not enough advantages already. It is also the
usual form of punishment for indiscreet remarks. . . .

These orders signed by your Majesty are often filled in
with obscure names of which your Majesty cannot possibly
have heard. They are at the disposal of your ministers, and
it would appear, in view of the great number which are
issued, of their clerks as well. They are confided to officials
in both the capital and the provinces, who make use of them
in accordance with the suggestions of their subdelegates and
other subordinates. They doubtless find their way into
many other hands, since we have just seen how readily they
are granted to a simple farmer general or even, we may
safely add, to the agents of the farm. . . .

The result is, sire, that no citizen in your kingdom can be
assured that his liberty will not be sacrificed to a private
grudge ; for no one is so exalted that he is safe from the ill
will of a minister, or so insignificant that he may not incur
that of a clerk in the employ of the farm. The day will
come, sire, when the multiplicity of the abuses of the lettres
de cachet will lead your Majesty to abolish a custom so
opposed to the constitution of your kingdom and the liberty
which your subjects should enjoy.

1 This refers to the imprisonment of unruly sons or other relatives
who were compromising a respectable family by their conduct.

The Eve of the Frejtch Revolutio?i

365

Of the hunting rights and royal preserves {capitaine-
ries) a celebrated English traveler gives a good account.

The capitaineries were a dreadful scourge on all the occu-
piers of land. By this term is to be understood the para-
mountship of certain districts granted by the king to princes
of the blood, by which they were put in possession of the
property of all game, even on lands not belonging to them ;
and what is very singular, on manors granted long before to
individuals ; so that the erecting of a district into a capitaine-
rie was an annihilation of all manorial rights to game wdthin
it. This was a trifling business in comparison to other cir-
cumstances ; for in speaking of the preservation of the game
in these capitaineries it must be observed that by game must
be understood whole droves of wild boars, and herds of deer
not conflned by any wall or pale, but wandering at pleasure
over the whole country, to the destruction of crops, and to
the peopling of the galleys by wretched peasants who pre-
sumed to kill them in order to save that food which was to
support their helpless children.

The game in the capitainerie of Montceau, in four parishes
only, did mischief to the amount of 184,263 livres per annum.
No wonder then that we should find the people asking, “We
loudly demand the destruction of all the capitaineries and of
all the various kinds of game.” And what are we to think
of demanding as a favor the permission “to thresh their
grain, mow their fields, and take away the stubble without
regard to the partridge or other game”?^ Now an English
reader will scarcely understand without being told that there
were numerous edicts for preserving the game, which pro-
hibited weeding and hoeing lest the young partridges should
be disturbed, steeping seed lest it should injure the game,
. . . mowing hay, etc., before a certain time so late as to
spoil many crops ; and taking away the stubble which would
deprive the birds of shelter.

1 These complaints are from the cahiers drawn up for the Estates
General in 1789. See History of Western Europe, pp. 562 sq. (Vol. II,
pp. 210 sqi). For the abolition of the hunting rights see below, p. 407.

380. The

hunting

preserves in

France.

(From

Arthur

Young’s

Travels.)

366

Readings in European History

381. Marie
Antoinette
reports to her
mother that
she is now
a queen.

Madame
du Barry
sent to a
convent.

II. Accession of Louis XVI ; Marie Antoinette

Louis XV died of smallpox May lo, 1774. Marie
Antoinette, now become queen at eighteen, writes to
her mother as follows :

Choisy, May 14, 1774.

Madame, my very dear mother ;

Count Mercy ^ has doubtless informed you of the details
of our misfortune. Happily his cruel malady left the king
fully conscious to the last moment, and his end was very
edifying. The new king seems to have gained the heart of
the people. Two days before his grandfather’s death he
had two hundred thousand francs distributed to the poor,
which produced a fine effect. Since the late king’s death
he has worked constantly, and replies with his own hand
to the ministers, whom he is not able to see yet, and to
many other letters. One thing is certain ; he has a taste
for economy, and his greatest anxiety is to make his peo-
ple happy. In short, his eagerness to learn is equal to
his need of information, and I trust that God will bless his
good will.

The public are looking for many changes just now. But
the king has confined himself to sending away that creature
to a convent and driving from court all connected with her.
The king owed this example to the people of Versailles, who
at the time of the catastrophe attacked Madame de Mazarin,
one of the most humble domestics of the favorite. I am
often urged to preach clemency to the king toward a num-
ber of corrupt souls who have been up to much evil during
the last few years. . . .

They have just come to forbid me to visit my Aunt Ade-
laide, who has a high fever and pain in her loins ; they fear
smallpox. I tremble and dare not think of the consequences.
It is terrible for her to pay so speedily for the sacrifice she
has made [in nursing the late king]. I am delighted that

1 The ambassador of the empire, whom Maria Theresa had selected
as the special adviser of her young daughter when she went to France.

The Eve of the Fre7Kh Revolutioji 367

Marshal Lascy was pleased with me. I confess, dear mamma,
that I was much affected when he took leave of me, as I
thought how rarely it happened that I saw people of my
own country, particularly those who have the additional
happiness of approaching you, . . .

The king has left me, as queen, free to fill the vacant
positions in my household. I took pleasure in according
a mark of attention to the people of Lorraine by select-
ing Abbe Sabran as my first almoner, — an upright man
of exalted birth and already appointed to the bishopric of
Nancy, which has just been created.

Although it pleased God to cause me to be born to the
station I occupy to-day, I cannot but wonder at the dispen-
sation of Providence, who chose me, the youngest of your
children, for the finest kingdom of Europe. I feel more than
ever all that I owe to the affection of my august mother,
who has been at such pains and trouble to secure this beau-
tiful position for me, I have never so longed to be able
to throw myself at her feet, kiss her, show her my whole
soul, and let her see how it is filled with respect, love, and
gratitude. . . .

[ The king here adds in his own handf

I am very glad to have an opportunity, my dear mamma,
to express my love and attachment, I would that I might
have your advice in these days which are so full of embar-
rassment. I should be delighted to be able to satisfy you,
and to prove in that way the affection and gratitude that I
owe you for granting me your daughter, with whom I could
not be better satisfied.

[ The queen then closes .•]

The king would not let my letter go without adding a
word for himself. I am sensible that he might have been
expected to write a letter of his own, but I beg that my dear
mamma will excuse him in view of the great number of
things he has to occupy him and also a little on account of
his natural timidity and shyness. You can see, dear mamma,
by what he says at the end, that while he is fond enough of
me he does not spoil me with insipid compliments.

368

Readings in Eitropean History

In a letter dated May 15, 1776, Marie Antoinette
writes to her mother : “ Monsieur de Malesherbes retired
from the ministry day before yesterday and was imme-
diately replaced by Monsieur Amelot. Monsieur Turgot
was dismissed the same day, and Monsieur de Clugny is
to take his place. I confess, dear mamma, that I do not
regret the departure of these men, but I had nothing to
do with it.” Maria Theresa replies with a characteristic
warning :

382. Maria
Theresa
warns her
daughter of
the dangers
of levity and
dissipation.

... I am very glad that you had nothing to do with the
dismissal of the two ministers, who enjoy a high reputation
with the public at large and who, in my opinion, have only
erred in attempting to do too much at once. You say that
you do not regret them. Doubtless you have good reasons ;
but of late the public no longer praises you as it did, and
attributes to you all sorts of little intrigues which would be
most unfitting to your station. The king loves you and his
ministers should respect you. By asking for nothing con-
trary to the established order and general welfare, you will
make yourself both loved and respected.

My only fear for you (being so young) is ari excess of dis-
sipation. You have never cared to read or to apply yourself
in any way ; this has often troubled me, and accounts for
my having tormented you so often with inquiries as to what
you were reading. I was so pleased to see you devoting
yourself to music. But for a year now there has been no
question of either reading or music, and I hear of nothing
but racing and hunting, and always without the king and with
a lot of ill-chosen young people ; all this troubles me very
much, loving you, as I do, so dearly. Your sisters-in-law
behave very differently, and I must own that all these bois-
terous diversions in which the king takes no part appear to
me unseemly. You will say, “ He knows and approves of
them.” I reply that he is kind and good and that that is all
the more reason that you should be circumspect and arrange
your pleasures together.

The Eve of the French Revolution 369

In February of the following year a projected visit of
the Emperor Joseph II to Paris seemed likely to be
abandoned. His mother, Maria Theresa, who had great
hopes of happy results from it, both personal and politi-
cal, writes to Marie Antoinette as follows :

Vienna, February 3, 1777.

... As I desire nothing else in this world but the good
of our holy religion, the happiness of my dear, and more than
dear, children, the welfare of our states, and the felicity of
our peoples, whom I love just as sincerely as my children,
so I long to see not only our houses and our interests bound
together closely and indissolubly, as indeed they already are,
but a cordial personal friendship as well, which will bear
every test and which no minister or other envious power
shall ever be able to change or diminish. The emperor and
the king are both so young, and both have such good and
generous hearts, that I believe my hopes to be well founded
if only they can learn to know each other and establish that
mutual confidence which will be so useful and so necessary
to them in their political careers, for their own happiness and
that of their countries, — indeed, for all Europe.

These reflections of a doting old mother and sovereign
have led me to send off new instructions to Mercy, directing
him to furnish you with information and arrange with you as
to the policy to be adopted toward your ministers. There
are matters of the highest importance which I can only touch
upon in passing. The quarrels between the Turks and the
Russians and between Spain and Portugal, as well as the
war in America, may well bring about a general conflagration
into which I shall be drawn in spite of myself ; particularly
as it is necessary to act with the greatest caution on account
of our bad neighbor,^ whose persistent enmity toward us is
greatly increased since we have ventured to oppose his unjust
designs in Poland and elsewhere. He is performing the
impossible in the effort to frustrate, or at least to weaken,

382a. Maria
Theresa
urges the
necessity
of a close
alliance
between
France and
Austria.

Namely, Frederick the Great of Prussia.

370 Readings m European History

our influence in all the courts of Europe ; he sticks at no
calumny, and especially in France, and it is this that makes
me doubly regret that the interview between Joseph II and
Louis XVI has not taken place. The delight of the king of
Prussia is a sure sign of the importance he attached to it,
and should serve to unite us all the closer, for united neither
he nor any one dare molest us.

I cannot conceal from you that scandal has not spared
you personally, and I have mentioned to Mercy several
darts of slander that have long disquieted me in regard to
your amusments, games, excursions ; that you were on bad
terms with the king, — that you no longer share his bed, but
want to sit up all night playing cards, which the king does
not like ; that you were alarmed at the prospect of your
brother’s visit, — that you did not in the least desire it, and
that you are now delighted to be left free to pursue your
pleasures. Such are the tales that are sent out from Berlin
to Saxony, Poland, everywhere; and I confess that for several
months they have caused me increasing dismay. My only
consolation is that, as atrocious slanders are promulgated
about the emperor and myself, it must be the same with you ;
but, my dear daughter, the newspapers but confirm these
accounts of the various amusements in which my dear queen
joins without her sisters-in-law or the king, and they give me
many sad hours. I love you so tenderly that I cannot but
look ahead into the future, and I entreat you to do the same.

III. The French intervene in the American
Revolution

No doubt the influence of the American Revolution
upon French affairs has commonly been much exag-
gerated, since there is every reason to suppose that the
example of the colonists did not really modify essentially
the trend of affairs in France toward reform. The
course of events can be readily explained even if the
American war be quite eliminated from consideration.

The Eve of the French Revolution 371

Yet the embarrassment of the treasury which resulted
from France’s intervention in the war, and the liberal
ideas which it suggested to some of the nobility, may
have hastened the French Revolution. The count of
Segur, looking back long years after the events he
narrates, thus describes the intervention of France in
the struggle of the American colonists.

At this time liberty, which had been hushed in the civi-
lized world for so many centuries, awoke in another hemi-
sphere and engaged in a glorious struggle against an ancient
monarchy which enjoyed the most redoubtable power. Eng-
land, confident of its strength, had subsidized and dispatched
forty thousand men to America to stifle this liberty in its
cradle ; but a whole nation which longs for freedom is scarce
to be vanquished.

The bravery of these new republicans won esteem in all
parts of Europe and enlisted the sympathies of the friends
of justice and humanity. The young men especially, who
although brought up in the midst of monarchies had by a
singular anomaly been nurtured in admiration for the great
writers of antiquity and the heroes of Greece and Rome,
carried to the point of enthusiasm the interest which the
American insurrection inspired in them.

The Erench government, which desired the weakening of
the power of England, was gradually drawn on by this liberal
opinion, which showed itself in so energetic a manner. At
first it secretly furnished arms, munitions, and money to the
Americans, or permitted supplies to reach them by French
ships ; but it was too weak to venture to declare itself openly
in their favor, affecting on the contrary an appearance of
strict neutrality and so far blinding itself as to imagine
that its secret measures would not be suspected, and that it
might ruin its rival without incurring the danger of meeting
it in the open field. Such an illusion could not last long, and
the English cabinet was too clear-sighted to let us gain the
advantages of a war without incurring any of its risks.

383. How

France

became

interested

in the

American

Revolution.

(From the

Memoires of

Segur.)

372

Readhigs in Eitropemt History

The veil became more and more transparent daily. Soon
the American envoys, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee, arrived
in Paris, and shortly after the famous Benjamin Franklin
joined them. It would be difficult to express the enthusiasm
and favor with which they were welcomed in France, into
the midst of an old monarchy, — these envoys of a people
in insurrection against their king. Nothing could be more
striking than the contrast between the luxury of our capital,
the elegance of our fashions, the magnificence of Versailles,
the polished but haughty arrogance of our nobles, — in short
all those living signs of the monarchical pride of Louis XIV,
— with the almost rustic dress, the simple if proud demeanor,
the frank, direct speech, the plain, unpowdered hair, and,
finally, that flavor of antiquity which seemed to bring sud-
denly within our walls and into the midst of the soft and
servile civilization of the seventeenth century these sage
contemporaries of Plato, or republicans of Cato’s or Fabius’
time.

This unexpected sight delighted us the more both because
it was novel and because it came at just the period when our
literature and philosophy had spread everywhere among us
a desire for reform, a leaning toward innovation, and a lively
love for liberty. The clash of arms served to excite still
more the ardor of war-loving young men, since the deliberate
caution of our ministers irritated us, and we were weary of
a long peace which had lasted more than ten years. Every
one was burning with a desire to repay the affronts of the
last war, to fight the English, and to fly to the succor of the
Americans. . . .

The young French officers, who breathed nothing but war,
hastened to the American envoys, questioned them upon the
situation, the resources of Congress, the means of defense,
and demanded all the various bits of news which were con-
stantly being received from that great theater where freedom
was fighting so valiantly against British tyranny. . . . Silas
Deane and Arthur Lee did not disguise the fact that the aid
of some well-trained officers would be both agreeable and
useful. They even informed us that they were authorized to

The Eve of the French Revolution

373

promise to those who would embrace their cause a rank
appropriate to their services.

The American troops already included in their ranks sev-
eral European volunteers whom the love of glory and inde-
pendence had attracted. . . . The first three Frenchmen of
distinguished rank at court who offered the aid of their serv-
ice to the Americans were the marquis of Lafayette, the
viscount of Noailles, and myself.

IV. The People of France

Of all the descriptions that we have of the general
condition of the French people upon the eve of the Rev-
olution, the most important and interesting is Arthur
Young’s account of his travels in PYance during the
years 1787, 1788, and 1789. Young was an honest and
observant English gentleman farmer, whose aim was to
ascertain “the cultivation, wealth, resources, and national
prosperity” of France, which were, as he foresaw, to be
fundamentally changed by the Revolution then under
way. His book, first published in 1792, met with imme-
diate success, and still fascinates even the casual reader.

In 1787 Arthur Young visited Paris and Versailles,
then traveled southward as far as the Pyrenees. Of
Versailles and the capital he says :

Again to Versailles. In viewing the king’s apartment,
which he had not left a quarter of an hour, with those slight
traits of disorder that showed he lived in it, it was amus-
ing to see the blackguard figures that were walking uncon-
trolled about the palace, and even in his bedchamber ; men
whose rags betrayed them to be in the last stage of poverty,
and I was the only person that stared and wondered how
the devil they got there. It is impossible not to like this
careless indifference and freedom from suspicion. One loves
the master of the house, who would not be hurt or offended

384. Ex-
tracts from
Arthur
Young’s
travels.

Impressions
of Versailles
and its
gardens.

374

Readmgs in European History

Condition
of the streets
of Paris in
1787.

at seeing his apartment thus occupied if he returned sud-
denly, for if there was danger of this the intrusion would be
prevented. This is certainly a feature of that good temper
which appears to me so visible everywhere in France. I
desired to see the queen’s apartments, but I could not. “Is
her Majesty in it? ” “ No.” “Why then not see it as well
as the king’s ? ” “ Ma foi. Monsieur, c’est une autre chose.”

Ramble through the gardens, and by the grand canal,
with absolute astonishment at the exaggerations of writers
and travelers. There is magnificence in the quarter of the
orangery, but no beauty anywhere ; there are some statues
good enough to wish them under cover. The extent and
breadth of the canal are nothing to the eye, and it is not in
such good repair as a farmer’s horse pond. The menagerie
is well enough, but nothing great.

This great city [Paris] appears to be in many respects
the most ineligible and inconvenient for the residence of a
person of small fortune of any that I have seen, and vastly
inferior to London. The streets are very narrow, and many
of them crowded, nine tenths dirty, and all without foot
pavements. Walking, which in London is so pleasant and
so clean that ladies do it every day, is here a toil and a
fatigue to a man, and an impossibility to a well-dressed
woman. The coaches are numerous, and, what is much
worse, there are an infinity of one-horse cabriolets, which
are driven by young men of fashion and their imitators,
alike fools, with such rapidity as to be real nuisances, and
render the streets exceedingly dangerous, without an inces-
sant caution. I saw a poor child run over and probably
killed, and have been myself many times blackened with the
mud of the kennels. This beggarly practice, of driving a
one-horse booby hutch about the streets of a great capital,
flows either from poverty or wretched and despicable econ-
omy ; nor is it possible to speak of it with too much sever-
ity. If youtig noblemen at London were to drive their
chaises in streets without footways, as their brethren do at
Paris, they would speedily and justly get very well threshed
or rolled in the kennel. This circumstance renders Paris an

The Eve of the French Revolution

375

ineligible residence for persons, particularly families that
cannot afford to keep a coach, — a convenience which is as
dear as at London. The fiacres — hackney coaches — are
much worse than at that city; and chairs there are none,
for they would be driven down in the streets. To this cir-
cumstance also it is owing that all persons of small or
moderate fortune are forced to dress in black, with black
stockings.

After a stay of three months. Young finds himself in
the southern confines of the kingdom.

^August VI.] Take the road to Lourdes, where is a castle
on a rock, garrisoned for the mere purpose of keeping state
prisoners sent hither by lettres de cachet. Seven or eight are
known to be here at present ; thirty have been here at a
time; and many for life, — torn by the relentless hand of
jealous tyranny from the bosom of domestic comfort ; from
wives, children, friends, and hurried for crimes unknown
to themselves — more probably for virtues — to languish in
this detested abode of misery, and die of despair. O lib-
erty! liberty! And yet this is the mildest government of
any considerable country in Europe, our own excepted. The
dispensations of Providence seem to have permitted the
human race to exist only as the prey of tyrants, as it has
made pigeons for the prey of hawks. . . .

\_The i2th.'\ Pau is a considerable town, that has a par-
liament and a linen manufacture ; but it is more famous for
being the birthplace of Henry IV. I viewed the castle, and
was shown, as all travelers are, the room in which that
amiable prince was born, and the cradle — the shell of a
tortoise — in which he was nursed. What an effect on pos-
terity have great and distinguished talents ! This is a con-
siderable town, but I question whether anything would ever
carry a stranger to it but its possessing the cradle of a
favorite character.

Take the road to Moneng [Monein] and come presently
to a scene which was so new to me in France that I could

Young’s
impressions
of Bearn.

Brittany.

376 Readmgs in European History

hardly believe my own eyes. A succession of many well-
built, tight, and comfortable farming cottages, built of stone
and covered with tiles; each having its little garden, inclosed
by clipped thorn hedges, with plenty of peach and other fruit
trees, some fine oaks scattered in the hedges, and young
trees nursed up with so much care that nothing but the fos-
tering attention of the owner could effect anything like it.
To every house belongs a farm, perfectly well inclosed, with
grass borders mown and neatly kept around the cornfields,
with gates to pass from one inclosure to another. The men
are all dressed with red caps, like the highlanders of Scot-
land. There are some parts of England (where small yeo-
men still remain) that resemble this country of Bearn ; but
we have very little that is equal to what I have seen in this
ride of twelve miles from Pau to Moneng. It is all in the
hands of little proprietors, without the farms being so small
as to occasion a vicious and miserable population. An air of
neatness, warmth, and comfort breathes over the whole. It
is visible in their new-built houses and stables, in their little
gardens, in their hedges, in the courts before their doors,
even in the coops for their poultry and the sties for their
hogs. A peasant does not think of rendering his pig com-
fortable if his own happiness hangs by the thread of a nine
years’ lease. We are now in Bearn, within a few miles of
the cradle of Henry IV. Do they inherit these blessings
from that good prince ? The benignant genius of that good
monarch seems to reign still over the country ; each peasant
has the fowl in the pot. . . .

\The ijth.'\ The agreeable scene of yesterday continues :
many small properties, and every appearance of rural happi-
ness.

In September, 1788, Young found himself in Brittany.

To Combourg. The country has a savage aspect; hus-
bandry not much further advanced, at least in skill, than
among the Hurons, which appears incredible amidst inclo-
sures. The people almost as wild as their country, and their
town of Combourg one of the most brutal, filthy places that

The Eve of the French Revolution 377

can be seen ; mud houses, no windows, and a pavement so
broken as to impede all passengers, but ease none. Yet here
is a chateau, and inhabited. Who is this Monsieur de Cha-
teaubriant, the owner, that has nerves strung for a residence
amidst such filth and poverty ? . . .

To Montauban. The poor people seem poor indeed ; the
children terribly ragged, — if possible, worse clad than if
with no clothes at all ; as to shoes and stockings, they are
luxuries. A beautiful girl of six or seven years playing with
a stick, and smiling under such a bundle of rags as made
my heart ache to see her. They did not beg, and when I
gave them anything seemed more surprised than obliged.

One third of what I have seen of this province seems uncul-
tivated, and nearly all of it in misery. What have kings,
and ministers, and parliaments, and states to answer for
their prejudices, seeing millions of hands that would be
industrious idle and starving through the execrable maxims
of despotism, or the equally detestable prejudices of a feudal
nobility. Sleep at the Lio?i d’Or, at Montauban, an abom-
inable hole.

Young was in Paris during the early sessions of the
Estates General in 1789.^ On June 28 he left the capi-
tal to visit the eastern and southeastern provinces.

Lack of
news in the
provinces.

\July ^,] To Chateau Thiery, following the course of the
Marne, The country is pleasantly varied, and hilly enough
to render it a constant picture, were it inclosed. Thiery is
beautifully situated on the same river. I arrived there by
five o’clock, and wished, in a period so interesting to France
and indeed to all Europe, to see a newspaper. I asked for a
coffee-house, — not one in the town. Here are two parishes
and some thousands of inhabitants, and not a newspaper to
be seen by a traveler, even in a moment when all ought to
be in anxiety. What stupidity, poverty, and want of circula-
tion! This people hardly deserve to be free; and should
there be the least attempt with vigor to keep them otherwise,

^ See below, pp. 402 sqq.

378

Readings m European History

Feudal dues.

it can hardly fail of succeeding. To those who have been
used to travel amidst the energetic and rapid circulation of
wealth, animation, and intelligence of England, it is not pos-
sible to describe in words adequate to one’s feelings the dull-
ness and stupidity of France. I have been to-day on one of
their greatest roads, within thirty miles of Paris, yet I have
not seen one diligence, and met but a single gentleman’s
carriage, nor anything else on the road that looked like a
gentleman.

{July i2.~\ Walking up a long hill to ease my mare, I was
joined by a poor woman, who complained of the times, and
that it was a sad country. Demanding her reasons, she said
her husband had but a morsel of land, one cow, and a poor
little horse, yet they had a franchar (forty-two pounds) of
wheat and three chickens to pay as a quitrent to one seig-
neur ; and four franchar of oats, one chicken, and one franc
to pay to another, besides very heavy tailles and other taxes.
She had seven children, and the cow’s milk helped to make
the soup. “ But why, instead of a horse, do not you keep
another cow.?” Oh, her husband could not carry his produce
so well without a horse ; and asses are little used in the coun-
try. It was said, at present, that something was to be done
by some great folks for such poor ones, but she did not know
who nor how, but God send us better, car les tailles et les
droits nous ecrasent.

This woman, at no great distance, might have been taken
for sixty or seventy, her figure was so bent and her face so
furrowed and hardened by labor, but she said she was only
twenty-eight. An Englishman who has not traveled cannot
imagine the figure made by infinitely the greater part of the
country women in France ; it speaks, at the first sight, hard
and severe labor. I am inclined to think that they work
harder than the men, and this, united with the more miser-
able labor of bringing a new race of slaves into the world,
destroys absolutely all symmetry of person and every femi-
nine appearance. To what are we to attribute this difference
in the manners of the lower people in the two kingdoms ? To
government. . . .

The Eve of the FrencJi Revolution

379

Thomas Jefferson was also traveling in France just
before the Revolution He writes from Nice to a friend,
April 1 1, 1787 :

In the great cities I go to see what travelers think alone
worthy of being seen ; but I make a job of it and gener-
ally gulp it all down in a day. On the other hand, I am
never satiated with rambling through the fields and farms,
examining the culture and cultivators with a degree of curi-
osity which makes some take me for a fool, and others to be
much wiser than I am. I have been pleased to find among
the people a less degree of physical misery than I had
expected. They are generally well clothed and have a plenty
of food, — not animal, indeed, but vegetable, which is just as
wholesome. Perhaps they are overworked, the excess of the
rent required by the landlord obliging them to too many
hours of labor in order to produce that and wherewith to
feed and clothe themselves. The soil of Burgundy and Cham-
pagne I have found more universally good than I had ex-
pected ; and as I could not help making a comparison with
England, I found that comparison more unfavorable to the
latter than is generally admitted. The soil, the climate, and
the productions are superior to those of England, and the
husbandry as good except in one point, that of manure.

From the first olive fields of Pierrelatte to the orangeries
of Hieres has been continued rapture to me. I have often
wished for you. I think you have not made this journey. It
is a pleasure you have to come, and an improvement you
have to add to the many you have already made. It will be
a great comfort for you to know, from your own inspection,
the condition of all the provinces of your own country, and
it will be interesting to them at some future day to be known
to you. This is perhaps the only moment of your life in which
you can acquire that knowledge. And to do it most effectu-
ally you must be absolutely incognito ; you must ferret the
people out of their hovels, as I have done, look into their
kettles, eat their bread, loll on their beds under pretense of
resting yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft. You will

385. Jeffer-
son finds
less misery
in France
than he
expected.

38o

Readings in European History

feel a sublime pleasure in the course of this investigation, and
a sublimer one hereafter, when you shall be able to apply '
your knowledge to the softening of their beds or the throw-
ing a morsel of meat into their kettle of vegetables.

386. Vol-
taire’s views
of the rela-
tion of
church and
state.

Civil

marriage.

The Church’s
regulations
regarding
usury.

Payment of
annates to
the pope.

V. Voltaire and Rousseau

In his famous Handy Philosophic Dictionary, a little
volume of essays on a variety of themes, published
anonymously in 1764, Voltaire gives under the word
“ law ” his ideas of the reform demanded in church and
state. It will be noted that he seems here to have no
quarrel with religion, but only with what he regards as the
encroachments of the clergy on the rights of the state.

No law made by the Church should ever have the least
force unless expressly sanctioned by the government. It was
owing to this precaution that Athens and Rome escaped all
religious quarrels.

Such religious quarrels are the trait of barbarous nations
or such as have become barbarous.

The civil magistrate alone may permit or prohibit labor on
religious festivals, since it is not the function of the priest to
forbid men to cultivate their fields.

Everything relating to marriage should depend entirely
upon the civil magistrate. The priests should confine them-
selves to the august function of blessing the union.

Lending money at interest should be regulated entirely by
the civil law, since trade is governed by civil law.

All ecclesiastics should be subject in every case to the
government, since they are subjects of the state.

Never should the ridiculous and shameful custom be main-
tained of paying to a foreign priest the first year’s revenue
of land given to a priest by his fellow-citizens.

No priest can deprive a citizen of the least of his rights on
the ground that the citizen is a sinner, since the priest — him-
self a sinner — should pray for other sinners, not judge them.

The Eve of the French Revolution 381

Officials, laborers, and priests should all alike pay the taxes
of the state, since they all alike belong to the state.

There should be but one standard of weights and measures
and one system of law.

Let the punishment of criminals be useful. A man when
hanged is good for nothing : a man condemned to hard labor
continues to serve his country and furnish a living lesson.

Every law should be clear, uniform, and precise. To inter-
pret law is almost always to corrupt it.

Nothing should be regarded as infamous except vice.

The taxes should never be otherwise than proportional to
the resources of him who pays.

Voltaire’s mingling of jest and earnest is generally
apparent in his discussion of theological matters. Like
Erasmus, he felt that the fine distinctions made by the
divines often obscured the main issue. Under “grace”
he writes as follows :

Ye sacred counselors of modern Rome, ye illustrious and
infallible theologians, no one has more respect than I for
your opinions. But were Paulus ^milius, Scipio, Cato,
Cicero, Caesar, Titus, Trajan, or Marcus Aurelius to return
to that Rome upon which they formerly cast some little
glory, you will admit that they would be somewhat startled
at your decisions respecting grace. What would they say
if they should hear of St. Thomas’ grace of health and of
Cajetan’s medicinal grace ; of external and internal, free,
sanctifying, actual, habitual, and cooperating grace ; of effec-
tual grace which is sometimes without effect ; of sufficing
grace which is often insufficient ; of versatile and congruous
grace? Would they, in good faith, understand these any
better than you and I do?

How completely at a loss would these poor people be
without your exalted instruction. I seem to hear them
say : “ Reverend fathers, what stupendous genius is yours !
We have been accustomed to think — absurdly enough, as
it appears — that the Eternal Being never follows special

All shoiild
pay taxes.

Uniformity.

387. Vol-
taire on
grace.

382 Readings in European History

laws, as we lowly human creatures must, but his own general
laws, eternal like himself. It never occurred to any of us
that God was like a crazy master who gave a fortune to one
slave and refused another his necessary food. . . .

“ Everything from God is grace ; he has conferred his
grace on the globe we dwell upon by forming it; upon the
trees the grace to grow; upon the beasts that of finding
food. But if one wolf finds a lamb in his way to make a
good meal of, and another wolf is famishing, shall we say
that God has shown his special grace to the first wolf? Has
he by ‘ preventing ’ grace been busied in causing one oak
to grow preferably to another ? . . .

“ How pitiable to suppose that God is continually making,
unmaking, and remaking sentiments in us, and what pre-
sumption to think that we are different in this respect from
all other beings ! Moreover it is only for those who go to
confession that all these changes are imagined. A Savoyard
or a man from Bergamo shall on Monday have grace to
have a mass said for twelve sous ; Tuesday grace will fail
him and he will go to the tavern; on Wednesday he will
have cooperating grace which will send him away to confes-
sion, but without the efficacious grace of perpetual contri-
tion ; Thursday it may be a ‘ sufficient ’ grace which will
prove insufficient. God will be continually at work in the
head of this man of Bergamo, sometimes strongly, sometimes
weakly, without minding any other thing upon earth and
without caring what becomes of the inside of Indians or
Chinese. . . .

“You miserable creatures! Lift up your eyes to the
heavens : see the Eternal Artificer creating millions of worlds
all gravitating toward one another by general and eternal
laws 1 Behold the same light reflected from the sun to
Saturn and from Saturn to us ; and amidst this harmony
of so many luminous bodies in a course as amazing as
swift, amidst this general obedience of all nature, I defy you
to believe that God is occupied with conferring versatile
grace on Sister Theresa and concomitant grace on Sister
Agnes.” . . .

The Eve of the French Revolution

383

These, it must be remembered, are Marcus Aurelius’
words, not mine ; for God, who inspires you, has given me
grace to believe all that you say, or have said, or shall say.

Among Rousseau’s writings the most permanently
influential is his Emile, or Education} This opens with
his protest against the artificiality of the civilization
which he saw about him, and his oft -repeated exhortation
to return to nature as the safest guide.

All things are good as their Author made them, but every-
thing degenerates in the hands of man. By man our native
soil is forced to nourish plants brought from foreign regions,
and one tree is made to bear the fruit of another. Man
brings about a general confusion of elements, climates, and
seasons ; he mutilates his dogs, his horses, and his slaves;
he defaces and confounds everything, and seems to delight
only in monsters and deformity. He is not content with any-
thing as N ature left it, not even with man, whom he must
train for his service like a saddle horse, and twist in his own
particular way like a tree in his garden.

Yet without this interference matters would be still worse
than they are, for our species cannot remain half made over.
As things now are, a man left to himself from his birth
would, in his association with others, prove the most pre-
posterous creature possible. The prejudices, authority, neces-
sity, and example, and, in short, the vicious social institutions
in which we find ourselves submerged, would stifle everything
natural in him and yet give him nothing in return. He
would be like a shrub which has sprung up by accident in
the middle of the highway to perish by being thrust this way
and that and trampled upon by passers-by. . . .

To form this rare creature, man, what have we to do ?
Much, doubtless, but chiefly to prevent anything being done.
. . . In the natural order of things, all men being equal, their

1 There is an abridged translation by W. H. Payne of this interesting
work issued, in the International Educational Series (Appleton, 1893),
in one volume.

388. Rous-
seau’s sum-
mons to
turn back
to nature.

384 Readings in European History

common vocation is manhood, and whoever is well trained
for that cannot fulfill any vocation badly which demands
manhood. Whether my pupil be destined for the army, the
church, or the bar, concerns me but little. Before he is
called to the career chosen by his parents. Nature summons
him to the duties of human life. To live is the trade I wish
to teach him. , . . All our wisdom consists in servile preju-
dices ; all our customs are but suggestion, anxiety, and con-
straint. Civilized man is born, lives, dies in a state of
slavery. At his birth he is sewed in swaddling clothes ; at
his death he is nailed in a coffin ; and as long as he pre-
serves the human form he is fettered by our institutions.
It is said that nurses sometimes claim to give the infant’s
head a better form by kneading it, and we permit them to
do this ! It would appear that our heads were badly
fashioned by the Author of Nature, and that they need to
be made over outwardly by the midwife and inwardly by
philosophers! The Caribbeans are more fortunate than we
by half. . . . Observe Nature and follow the path she traces
for you !

389. Rous-
seau’s
deistic
religion.

Rousseau closes his Social Contract with a chapter
on “civil religion.” Roman Catholic Christianity he
regarded as very noxious to the state: even the Chris-
tianity that he discovered in the Gospels, which he pro-
fesses to admire, did not, he believed, help to make good
citizens, but rather the contrary.

Christianity is a purely spiritual religion, occupied solely
with heavenly things ; the country of a Christian is not
of this world. He does his duty, it is true, but he does it
with a profound indifference as to the good or ill success of
his efforts. Provided he has nothing to reproach himself
with, it matters little to him whether things go well or ill
here below. If the state is flourishing, he scarcely dares
enjoy the public felicity ; he fears to become proud of the
glory of his country. If the state degenerates, he blesses
the hand of God which lies heavy upon his people. . . .

The Eve of the French Revolution 385

Should the depository of this [political] power abuse it,
he regards this abuse as the rod with which God punishes
his children. People would have scruples about driving out
the usurper : it would be necessary to disturb the public
repose, to use violence, to shed blood ; all this accords ill
with the gentleness of the Christian, and, after all, what mat-
ters it whether one is a slave or free in this vale of misery ?
The essential thing is to go to paradise, and resignation is
but one more means to accomplish it.

Should some foreign war supervene, the citizens march to
combat without difficulty. None among them think of flying ;
they do their duty, but without passion for victory ; they
know better how to die than to win. Whether they are victors
or vanquished, what matters it? Does not Providence know
better than they what they need? . . .

But I am in error in speaking of a Christian republic ;
each of these words excludes the other. Christianity preaches
only servitude and dependence. Its spirit is too favorable to
tyranny not to be taken advantage of by it. Christians are
made to be slaves : they know it and do not care ; this short
life has too little value in their eyes. . . .

There is, however, a profession of faith purely civil, of
which it is the sovereign’s [i.e. the people’s] duty to decide
upon the articles, not precisely as dogmas of religion, but as
sentiments of sociality without which it is impossible to be
a good citizen or a faithful subject; Without being able to
oblige any one to believe them, the sovereign can banish from
the state whoever does not believe them ; the sovereign should
banish him, not as impious, but as unsocial, as incapable of
loving law and justice sincerely, and of sacrificing at need
his life to his duty. If any one, having publicly acknowledged
these dogmas, conducts himself as if he did not acknowledge
them, he should be punished with death ; he has committed
the greatest of crimes, — he has lied before the law.

The dogmas of civil religion should be simple, few in
number, announced with precision, without explanation or
commentary. The existence of a powerful, intelligent, benevo-
lent, prescient, and provident Divinity, the life to come, the

Danger of
intolerance.

390. Tur-
got’s letter
to the king
upon assum-
ing office
(August,

1774).

386 Readings m European History

happiness of the just, the punishment of the wicked, the
sacredness of the social contract and the law, — these are
the positive dogmas.

As to the negative dogmas, I limit them to one, — intoler-
ance : it enters into the religions which we have excluded.
Those who make a distinction between civil intolerance and
theological intolerance deceive themselves, to my mind.
These two intolerances are inseparable. It is impossible to
live in peace with people whom one believes to be damned ;
to love them is to hate God, who punishes them ; they must
be redeemed or else tortured. Wherever theological intol-
erance is admitted, it must have some civil effects; and as
soon as it has them the sovereign is no more a sovereign,
even in temporal matters. From that time priests are the
true masters ; kings are but their officers.

VI. Turgot and Necker

Turgot, immediately after learning from Louis XVI
that he had been appointed comptroller general, wrote the
following touching letter to that inefficient young mon-
arch, who was so ready to desert him a few months
later.

_ ' COMPIEGNE, August 24, 1774.

Having just come from the private interview with which
your Majesty has honored me, still full of the anxiety pro-
duced by the immensity of the duties now imposed upon
me, agitated by all the feelings excited by the touching kind-
ness with which you have encouraged me, I hasten to con-
vey to you my respectful gratitude and the devotion of my
whole life.

Your Majesty has been good enough to permit me to place
on record the engagement you have taken upon you to sus-
tain me in the execution of those plans of economy which are
at all times, and to-day more than ever, an indispensable

The Eve of the F^'ench Revolution 387

necessity. ... At this moment, sire, I confine myself to
recalling to you these three items :

No bankruptcy.

No increase of taxes.

No loans.

No bankruptcy, either avowed or disguised by illegal
reductions.

No increase of taxes ; the reason for this lying in the con-
dition of your people, and, still more, in that of your Majesty’s
own generous heart.

No loans; because every loan always diminishes the free
revenue and necessitates, at the end of a certain time, either
bankruptcy or the increase of taxes. In times of peace it is
permissible to borrow only in order to liquidate old debts,
or in order to redeem other loans contracted on less advanta-
geous terms.

To meet these three points there is but one means. It is
to reduce expenditure below the revenue, and sufficiently
below it to insure each year a saving of twenty millions, to
be applied to redemption of the old debts. Without that, the
first gunshot will force the state into bankruptcy.

The question will be asked incredulously, “ On what can
we retrench ? ” and each one, speaking for his own depart-
ment, will maintain that nearly every particular item of ex-
pense is indispensable. They will be able to allege very
good reasons, but these must all yield to the absolute neces-
sity of economy. . . .

These are the matters which I have been permitted to
recall to your Majesty. You will not forget that in accept-
ing the place of comptroller general I have felt the full value
of the confidence with which you honor me ; I have felt that
you intrust to me the happiness of your people, and, if it be
permitted to me to say so, the care of promoting among your
people the love of your person and of your authority.

At the same time I feel all the danger to which I expose
myself. I foresee that I shall be alone in fighting against
abuses of every kind, against the power of those who profit
by these abuses, against the crowd of prejudiced people who

Turgot
foresees the
danger of
opposition to
all reforms.

388 Readings in European History

oppose themselves to all reform, and who are such powerful
instruments in the hands of interested parties for perpetuat-
ing the disorder. I shall have to struggle even against the
natural goodness and generosity of your Majesty, and of the
persons who are most dear to you. I shall be feared, hated
even, by nearly all the court, by all who solicit favors. They
will impute to me all the refusals ; they will describe me as
a hard man because I shall have advised your Majesty that
you ought not to enrich even those that you love at the
expense of your people’s subsistence.

And this people, for whom I shall sacrifice myself, are so
easily deceived that perhaps I shall encounter their hatred
by the very measures I take to defend them against exactions.
I shall be calumniated (having, perhaps, appearances against
me) in order to deprive me of your Majesty’s confidence. I
shall not regret losing a place which I never solicited. I am
ready to resign it to your Majesty as soon as I can no longer
hope to be useful in it. . . .

Your Majesty will remember that it is upon the faith of
your promises made to me that I charge myself with a bur-
den perhaps beyond my strength, and it is to yourself per-
sonally, to the upright man, the just and good man, rather
than to the king, that I give myself.

I venture to repeat here what you have already been kind
enough to hear and approve of. The affecting kindness with
which you condescended to press my hands within your
own, as if sealing my devotion, will never be effaced from
my memory. It will sustain my courage. It has forever
united my personal happiness with the interest, the glory,
and the happiness of your Majesty. It is with these senti-
ments that I am, sire, etc.

The preamble to Turgot’s edict abolishing the guilds
illustrates both the system he endeavored to destroy and
his method of educating the people by explaining the
nature and defects of the abuses against which the decree
was directed.

The Eve of the French Revolution

389

In almost all the towns the exercise of the different arts
and trades is concentrated in the hands of a small number
of masters, united in corporations, who alone can, to the
exclusion of all other citizens, make or sell the articles be-
longing to their particular industry. Any person who, by
inclination or necessity, intends following an art or trade can
only do so by acquiring the mastership [i.e. freedom of the
corporation] after a probation as long and vexatious as it is
superfluous. By having to satisfy repeated exactions, the
money he had so much need of in order to start his trade or
open his workshop has been consumed in mere waste. . . .

Citizens of all classes are deprived both of the right to
choose the workmen they would employ, and of the advan-
tages they would enjoy from competition operating toward
improvements in manufacture and reduction in price. Often
one cannot get the simplest work done without its having to
go through the hands of several workmen of different corpo-
rations, and without enduring the delays, tricks, and exactions
which the pretensions of the different corporations, and the
caprices of their arbitrary and mercenary directors, demand
and encourage.

Thus the effects of these establishments are, first, as
regards the state, a vast tyranny over trade and industrial
work ; second, as regards the great body of the people, a
loss of wages and the means of subsistence ; third, in respect
to the inhabitants of towns in general, a slavery to exclusive
privileges equivalent to a real monopoly, — a monopoly of
which those who exercise it against the public are themselves
the victims whenever, in their turn, they have need of the
articles or the work of any other corporation. . . .

Among the infinite number of unreasonable regulations, we
find in some corporations that all are excluded from them ex-
cept the sons of masters, or those who marry the widows of
masters. Others reject all those whom they call “strangers,”
— that is, those born in another town. In many of them for
a young man to be married is enough to exclude him from
the apprenticeship, and consequently from the mastership.
The spirit of monopoly which has dictated the making of

391. Pre-
amble to
Turgot’s
edict abol-
ishing the
guilds.

390

Readings in European History

392. Necker
reviews his
own adminis-
tration.

these statutes has been carried out to the excluding of women
even from the trades the most suitable to their sex, such as
embroidery, which they are forbidden to exercise on their
own account. . . .

God, by giving to man wants, and making his recourse to
work necessary to supply them, has made the right to work
the property of every man, and this property is the first, the
most sacred, the most imprescriptible of all.

The first paragraph of the edict itself provides that :

It shall be free to all persons, of whatever quality or con-
dition they may be, even to all foreigners, to undertake and
to exercise in all our kingdom, and particularly in our good
city of Paris, whatever kind of trade and whatever profession
of art or industry may seem good to them ; for which pur-
pose we now extinguish and suppress all corporations and
communities of merchants and artisans, as well as all mas-
terships and guild directories. We abrogate all privileges,
statutes, and regulations of the said corporations, so that nono
of our subjects shall be troubled in the exercise of his trade
or profession by any cause or under any pretext whatever.

Shortly after his retirement in 1781, Necker set
to work to write A Treatise on the Administration of
the Finanees of Franee. In the introduction to this he
speaks of his recent experiences as minister of finance.

The review I take of my past administration occasions,
it is true, neither remorse nor repentance : possibly I may
even find in it some actions the remembrance of which
will shed a happy influence over the remainder of my days ;
possibly I may think that, if it had not been for the revival
and support of public confidence, the enemies of the king,
who relied on the effects of the former disorder and low state
of public credit in France, might have gained advantages
that have escaped them ; possibly I may think that if, in
the first years of the war, I had been obliged to furnish the
resources of a prudent government by taxes or rigorous

The Eve of the Freiwh Revolution

391

operations, the poor would have been very unhappy, and the
other classes of citizens would have taken alarm.

Yet, to balance these pleasing recollections, I shall always
behold the empty shadow of the more lively and pure satis-
factions that my administration was deprived of ; I shall
have always present to my mind those benefits of every kind
which it would have been so easy to have effected if the
fruits of so many solicitudes, instead of being appropriated
solely to the extraordinary expenses of the state, could have
been applied daily to augment the happiness and prosperity
of the people.

Alas ! what might not have been done under other circum-
stances ! It wounds my heart to think of it ! I labored dur-
ing the storm ; I put the ship, as it were, afloat again, and
others enjoy the command of her in the days of peace !
But such is the fate of men ; that Providence which searches
the human heart and finds even in the virtues on which we
pride ourselves some motives which are not perhaps pure
enough in its sight, takes a delight in disappointing the
most pardonable of all passions, namely, that of the love of
glory and of the good opinion of the public. . . .

I regret, and I have made no secret of it, that I was inter-
rupted in the middle of my career, and that I was not able
to finish what I had conceived for the good of the state and
for the honor of the kingdom. I have not the hypocritical
vanity to affect a deceitful serenity, which would be too
nearly allied to indifference to deserve a place among the
virtues. That moment will be long present to my mind
when, some days after my resignation, being occupied in
assorting and classifying my papers, I came across those
that contained my various ideas for future reforms, and more
especially the plans I had formed for ameliorating the salt
tax, for the suppression of every customhouse in the interior
parts of the kingdom, and for the extension of the provin-
cial administrations : — I could proceed no farther, and push-
ing away all these notes by a kind of involuntary motion, I
covered my face with my hands, and a flood of tears over-
powered me.

393. Necker
on the sway
of public
opinion in
France.

392 Readings in European History

After tracing the growth of public opinion in France,
Necker continues :

A great many foreigners, from various causes, cannot
have a just notion of the authority that is exercised in France
by public opinion. They cannot comprehend the nature of
an invisible power which, destitute of treasury, of guards
and armies, dictates its laws in the capital, in the court, and
even in the king’s palace. Nevertheless nothing is more
true nor more remarkable ; and we shall cease to wonder at
it if we reflect on what must be the consequences of the
spirit of society when that spirit has an unbounded sway
over a sensible people, who love not only to judge but to
make a figure in the world ; who are not divided by polit-
ical interests, weakened by despotism, or overcome by tur-
bulent passions ; lastly, over a nation in which, perhaps, a
general propensity to imitation produces a multiplicity of
opinions and weakens the force of those that are too singu-
lar, so that being commonly united together, and resembling
billows that are more or less impetuous, they have a very
powerful ascendant while they are in motion. . . .

Let us appreciate the full value of so salutary an author-
ity ; let us rally ourselves, in order to defend it against those
it annoys and who would destroy it. It is that authority
alone which sets bounds to the mischievous progress of in-
difference : in the midst of a depraved age its voice alone is
attended to, and it seems to preside in the tribunal of honor.

I will go still farther : it is the ascendency of public opin-
ion that opposes more obstacles in France to the abuse of
power than any other consideration whatsoever. Yes, it is
entirely by that opinion, and the esteem in which it is still
held, that the nation has a kind of influence, by having it in
its power to reward with praise, or punish with contempt. If
ever that opinion is entirely despised, or if it ever grows too
weak, then liberty will lose its principal support, and there
will be a greater necessity than ever that the sovereign should
be virtuous and his ministers moderate. . . .

Preambles to edicts are a form peculiar to the French
government. Under the empire of despotism the sovereign

The Eve of the Fi'ench Revolution

393

disdains to instruct his subjects, or is afraid of accustoming
them to reflect and argue. In free countries, on the other
hand, such as England, every new law being discussed in the
assembly of the representatives of the nation, the people are
well informed, or at least reputed to be so, at the moment
these laws are determined on ; and every individual may
know the motive for making them, from the collection of
parliamentary debates or from the public papers.

But in France, where there are no national assemblies,
and where nevertheless the laws of the sovereign must be
registered by the supreme courts, — in France, where the
monarch entertains a certain regard for the national charac-
ter, and where the ministers themselves are made sensible
every hour that they stand in need of the public approba-
tion,— it has been thought essential to explain the motives
of the will of the sovereign, when that will manifests itself
to the people, whether under the form of edicts or of simple
proclamations of the council.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Ancien Regime: Mathews, The French Revolution, pp. 1-30;
Lowell, The Eve of the French Revolution, pp. 4-24 ; Cambridge Mod-
em History, Vol. VIII, pp. 36-65.

Church and Clergy: Mathews, pp. 42-51; Lowell, pp. 25-69.

The Philosophers: Mathews, pp. 52-72; Lowell, pp. 243-273;
Cambridge Modemt History, Vol. VIII, pp. 1-35. Extracts from the
writings of some of the more noted philosophers are given in Transla-
tions and Reprints, Vol. VI, No. i.

Turgot and Necker: Mathews, pp. 91-101 ; Ca7iibridge Modern
History, Vol. VIII, pp. 66-78.

Rousseau: Lowell, pp. 274-321.

Early Years of Louis XVI’s Reign : Hassall, Balance of Power
{fCuropean History, iyip-if8g), pp. 401-424 ; Cambridge Modern History,
Vol. VIII, pp. 79-98.

Maclehose, The Last Days of the French Mo^tarchy. Well illus-
trated. This and Lowell’s Eve of the French Revolution are the best
general accounts to be had in English of the institutions of the old
monarchy.

Importance
in France
'of the pre-
ambles to
edicts.

A. Refer-
671 ces.

B. Addi-
tional read-
big in
English.

394

Readings in European History

Sources in
English.

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

De Tocqueville, State of Society in France before the Revolution.
A very remarkable philosophical account of the character and policy of
the French government. This should be studied with the utmost care
by all students of the period. A new edition of the French original,
with introduction and notes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1904.

Taine, The Ancient Regime. A brilliant work. The chapters on the
society, literature, and philosophy of the period are the best ; those on
the economic conditions are disappointing.

Rocquain, The Revolutionary Spirit before the Revolution, 1894. A
condensation, omitting the valuable notes of the original French edition.
A suggestive account of the various disturbances preceding the disorders
of the Revolution itself.

Morley, John, Voltaire, a brilliant essay; Rousseau, 2 vols.; Diderot
and the Encyclopcedists, 2 vols. ; C7'itical Miscellaiiies, 3 vols., containing
essays on Turgot and other important persons of the period. Mr. Mor-
ley’s writings are noteworthy not only for their scholarship and distin-
guished style but also for the fundamental sympathy between his views
and many of those of the eighteenth-century philosophers.

SoREL, Montesquieu. A useful little biography.

Say, Leon, Turgot. Very valuable review of Turgot’s work.

Voltaire’s writings (e.g. The Philosophical Dictionaryi), Montes-
quieu’s Spirit of Laws (in the Bohn Library), Rousseau’s Social Con-
tract and Emile are readily procured in English.

Stephens, W. W., Life and Writings of Turgot. Contains extracts
from the preambles to Turgot’s decrees.

Young, Arthur, Travels in France (Bohn Library). See above,
P- 373-

Campan, Madame de. Memoirs. See below, p. 400.

Translatiojis and Reprints, Vol. VI, No. i, in which Professor Whit-
comb gives some interesting extracts from the writings of the philoso-
phers; the same, Vol. V, No. 2, Protest of the Cour des Aides of I’j'jp.
A very extraordinary indictment of the Ancien Regime presented to the
king by his magistrates during Turgot’s administration. No single
document on the Ancieji Regime is better worth careful study.

Gomel, Les Causes financieres de la revolution fra^tqaise, 2 vols. In
spite of the title of this work, it is really the best general account of the
antecedents of the Revolution ; clear, fair-minded, and accurate.

Sorel, L' Europe et la revolution frangaise. Vol. I of this monu-
mental work is a brilliant account of the spirit of the Attcien Regime in
France and Europe at large.

The Eve of the French Revolution

395

JoBEZ, La France sous Louis XVL, 3 vols., 1885. An excellent gen-
eral history of events of the reign.

Llistoire de France, edited by Lavisse. Vol. VIII, Part II (Louis XV)
by Carre; and Vol. IX (Louis XVI, 1774-1789) by Carre. These vol-
umes are announced. Also, by same writer. La France sous Louis XV,
1891.

'R.ocqx! Ki'H, F Esprit revolutionnaire avant la revolution, 1878. Valu-
able notes, and appendix containing list of books condemned during
the eighteenth century.

Aubertin, Ld Esprit publique au iSihne siecle, 1872. Very suggestive.

Babeau, a., Le Village sous P ancient reghne, 1878; La Ville sous
Vancien regime, 1880; La Province sous I'ancien regime, 2 vols., 1894;
La Vie rurale dans P ancienne France, 1883 ; Les Artisans et les Dof?ies-
tiques d' autrefois, 1886; Les Bourgeois d' autrefois, 1886; Les Voyageurs
C7C France depuis la re7iaissance jusqu’a la revolution, 1885; etc. Careful
studies of important phases of French life before the Revolution.

Levasseur, LPistoire des classes otivrieres ava7it lySg, Vol. II, and
excellent chapter at opening of his Histoire des classes ouvrieres depuis
iq8g.

St. Leon, Martin, Llistoire des co7porations des 7netiers, 1897.

See also chapters in Vol. VII of the Histoire ghierale, Chapter XIII,
“La France economique,” by Levasseur; and Chapter XIV, “La Litte-
rature fran9aise,” by Faguet.

Boiteau, L' Etat de la France en ij8g.

Clamageran, Histoire de Phnpdt en Fra7ice, 3 vols. While this
closes with 1774, it supplies the key to the financial situation at the
opening of Louis XVI’s reign.

Besides the invaluable cahiers (see below, p. 397), a few only of the
sources (but all of them of first-rate importance) are mentioned here.

Mercy-Argenteau, Corresponda7ice secrete avec Pi77iperatrice Marie-
Therese, avec les lettres de Marie-Therese et de Marie- A7itoi7iette, 3 vols.,
1875 ; Corresp07ida7ice secrete avec Pe7npereur foseph IP et le p7'ince
de Kaimitz, 2 vols., 1889-1891. An extraordinary collection of informa-
tion, which the sagacious Comte de Mercy (see above, p. 366) trans-
mitted to Vienna, from 1766 to 1790.

Lettres de Marie Antohiette (publiees par Maxime de la Rocheterie et
le Marquis de Beaucourt), 2 vols., 1895-1896.

Grimm, Diderot, Raynal, etc., Correspo7ida7ice litteraire, philoso-
phique et critique, de i^4q-i'j8j, edited by Tourneux, 16 vols., 1877-
1SS2. Admits one to the intimacy of the chief men of letters of the
time.

Babeau’s

monographs

Sources.

396

Readings in EiLropean History

Flammermont, Remontrances du parlement de Paris, 3 vols. The
strictures of the great court at Paris on the policy of the ministers dur-
ing the eighteenth century.

Turgot, CEuvres, edited by Daire, 2 vols. Affords the clearest
notion of the economic conditions. Includes all of Turgot’s preambles
to his edicts. This belongs to the important Collection des principaux
econofnistes, 4 vols., 1843-1848.

'Qakbi'KK, /ournal historique et anecdotiqne du regne de Louis XV,
4 vols. (Societe de I’histoire de France). One of the most important of
the memoirs ; closes about the year 1 763, and gives a lively picture of the
Ancien Regime from the standpoint of a lawyer. Among the other well-
known memoirs for Louis XVI’s reign are those of Madame de Cam-
pan, Seguier; Weber, Besenval, Bertrand de Moleville, Augeard, — all by
the pens of what the Revolution later branded as “ aristocrats.” Also
Memoires et Correspondance dti general Lafayette, 6 vols., 1837-1838.

See bibliographies in Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VIII, pp. 791
sqq.\ Histoire generale, Vol. VII, pp. 367 sqq. and 648 jyy. Also at the
close of Lowell, The Eve of the French Revolution.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

I. The Cahiers of 1789

The cahiers^ drawn up in accordance with an ancient
custom by the three orders of the realm, form one of
the most extraordinary historical documents of all time.
The conditions under which they were drafted were, on
the whole, favorable to a frank and general expression
on the part of all classes of the French people of their
suggestions for reform. A portion of one of the cahiers
of the third estate, selected somewhat at random, is
given below. 1

Cahier of the grievances, complaints, and protests of the electo-
ral district of Carcassonne, drawn up by the commissioners
named by the general assembly of the third estate and based
upon the various cahiers received from the several co7nmuni-
ties of the said district :

The third estate of the electoral district of Carcassonne,
desiring to give to a beloved monarch, and one so worthy
of our affection, the most unmistakable proof of its love and
respect, of its gratitude and fidelity, desiring to cooperate
with the whole nation in repairing the successive misfor-
tunes which have overwhelmed it, and with the hope of
reviving once more its ancient glory, declares that the hap-
piness of the nation must, in their opinion, depend upon

1 A cahier of a single order in one electoral district would fill several
pages of this volume, and all those prepared to be taken to Versailles
occupy together, when printed, six compactly printed quarto volumes.
Professor Whitcomb has translated a typical cahier of each of the
orders in Translatiojis and Reprints, Vol. TV, No. 5.

397

394. Cahier
of the third
estate of
Carcas-
sonne.

398

Readings in Eiiropean History

Roman

Catholic

religion.

Treatment of
non-Catholics,

Abolition of
papal dues.

that of its king, upon the stability of the monarchy, and upon
the preservation of the orders which compose it and of the
fundamental laws which govern it.

Considering, too, that a holy respect for religion, moral-
ity,' civil liberty, and the rights of property, a speedy return
to true principles, a careful selection and due measure in the
matter of the taxes, a strict proportionality in their assess-
ment, a persistent economy in government expenditures, and
indispensable reforms in all branches of the administration,
are the best and perhaps the only means of perpetuating the
existence of the monarchy ;

The third estate of the electoral district of Carcassonne
very humbly petitions his Majesty to take into consideration
these several matters, weigh them in his wisdom, and permit
his people to enjoy, as soon as may be, fresh proofs of that
benevolence which he has never ceased to exhibit toward
them and which is dictated by his affection for them.

In view of the obligation imposed by his Majesty’s com-
mand that the third estate of this district should confide to
his paternal ear the causes of the ills which afflict them and
the means by which they may be remedied or moderated,
they believe that they are fulfilling the duties of faithful sub-
jects and zealous citizens in submitting to the consideration
of the nation, and to the sentiments of justice and affection
which his Majesty entertains for his subjects, the following:

1. Public worship should be confined to the Roman Cath-
olic apostolic religion, to the exclusion of all other forms of
worship ; its extension should be promoted and the most
efficient measures taken to reestablish the discipline of the
Church and increase its prestige.

2. Nevertheless the civil rights of those of the king’s sub-
jects who are not Catholics should be confirmed, and they
should be admitted to positions and offices in the public
administration, without however extending this privilege —
which reason and humanity alike demand for them — to
judicial or police functions or to those of public instruction.

3. The nation should consider some means of abolish-
ing the annates and all other dues paid to the holy see, to

■ The French Revolution

399

the prejudice and against the protests of the whole French
people.

[Pluralities should be prohibited, monasteries reduced in
numbers, and holidays suppressed or decreased.]

7. The rights which have just been restored to the nation
should be consecrated as fundamental principles of the mon-
archy, and their perpetual and unalterable enjoyment should
be assured by a solemn law, which should so define the
rights both of the monarch and of the people that their vio-
lation shall hereafter be impossible.

8. Among these rights the following should be especially
noted : the nation should hereafter be subject only to such
laws and taxes as it shall itself freely ratify.

9. The meetings of the Estates General of the kingdom
should be fixed for definite periods, and the subsidies judged
necessary for the support of the state and the public service
should be voted for no longer a period than to the close of
the year in which the next meeting of the Estates General
is to occur.

10. In order to assure to the third estate the influence to
which it is entitled in view of the number of its members,
the amount of its contributions to the public treasury, and
the manifold interests which it has to defend or promote
in the national assemblies, its votes in the assembly should
be taken and counted by head.

11. No order, corporation, or individual citizen may lay
claim to any pecuniary exemptions. . . . All taxes should
be assessed on the same system throughout the nation.

12. The due exacted from commoners holding fiefs should
be abolished, and also the general or particular regulations
which exclude members of the third estate from certain posi-
tions, offices, and ranks which have hitherto been bestowed
on nobles either for life or hereditarily. A law should be
passed declaring members of the third estate qualified to fill
all such offices for which they are judged to be personally
fitted.

13. Since individual liberty is intimately associated with
national liberty, his Majesty is hereby petitioned not to

Granting of
subsidies.

Regular
meetings of
the Estates
General.

Vote by-
head.

No exemp-
tions from
taxes.

Privileges of
the nobility
in holding
office to be
abolished.

Lettres de
cachet.

400

Readings m European History

Freedom of
the press.

395. The
opening of
the Estates
General.
(From
Madame de
Campan’s
Memoirs.)

Mirabeau
and the court.

permit that it be hereafter interfered with by arbitrary orders
for imprisonment. . . .

14. Freedom should be granted also to the press, which
should however be subjected, by means of strict regulations,
to the principles of religion, morality, and public decency. . . .

60. The third estate of the district of Carcassonne places
its trust, for the rest, in the zeal, patriotism, honor, and
probity of its deputies in the National Assembly in all mat-
ters which may accord with the beneficent views of his
Majesty, the welfare of the kingdom, the union of the three
estates, and the public peace.

II. The Opening of the Estates Generai. in 1789

Madame de Campan, one of the queen’s ladies in wait-
ing, gives some account in her well-known Memoirs of
the arrival of the deputies of the third estate and of their
prejudice against Marie Antoinette and the court.

The Estates General opened May 4. For the last time
the queen appeared in royal magnificence. . . . The first
session of the Estates was held next day. The king deliv-
ered his address with assurance and dignity. The queen told
me that he gave the matter much attention, and rehearsed
his speech frequently in order to be quite master of the
intonations of his voice. His Majesty gave public indica-
tions of his attachment and deference for the queen, who
was applauded ; but it was easy to see that the applause
was really meant for the king alone.

From the very early sessions it was clear that Mirabeau
would prove very dangerous to the government. It is alleged
that he revealed at this time to the king, and more particu-
larly to the queen, a part of the plans he had in mind, and
the conditions upon which he would abandon them. He
had already exhibited the weapons with which his eloquence
and audacity furnished him, in order that he might open

The French Revolution

401

negotiations with the party he proposed to attack. This man
played at revolution in order to gain a fortune. The queen
told me at this time that he asked for an embassy, — Con-
stantinople, if I remember rightly. He was refused with that
proper contempt which vice inspires, but which policy would
doubtless best have disguised, if the future could have been
foreseen.^

The general enthusiasm which prevailed during the early
sessions of the Assembly, the discussions among the depu-
ties of the third estate and nobility, and even of the clergy,
filled their Majesties and those attached to the cause of
monarchy with increasing alarm. . . . The deputies of the
third estate arrived at Versailles with the deepest prejudices
against the court. The wicked sayings of Paris never fail
to spread throughout the provinces. The deputies believed
that the king indulged in the pleasures of the table to a
shameful excess. They were persuaded that the queen
exhausted the treasury of the state to gratify the most unrea-
sonable luxury.

Almost all wished to visit the Little Trianon.^ The ex-
treme simplicity of this pleasure house did not correspond
with their ideas. Some insisted that they be shown even the
smallest closets, on the ground that some richly furnished
apartments were being concealed from them. At last they
designated one which they declared was said to be decorated
throughout with diamonds and twisted columns set with
sapphires and rubies. The queen could not get these silly
ideas out of her head and told the king about them. He
thought, from the description of the room furnished to the
guards in the Trianon, that the deputies had in mind the
decoration of imitation diamonds in the theater at Fontaine-
bleau constructed in Louis XV’s reign.

1 The queen abhorred Mirabeau, who had scandalized even the court
by his private immorality. His attempts to save the king and queen
(see below, pp. 414 sqq.) were viewed as vulgar plots for his own
advancement.

2 A simple little pleasure house in a secluded part of the gardens at
Versailles, much beloved by the queen on account of its retirement.

Alarm of
the court.

402

Readings in Europea7i History

396. Arthur
Young visits
the National
Assembly
(June, 1789).

The in-
numerable
pamphlets.

The speakers
at the Palais
Royal in
Paris.

Scarcity
of food.

Arthur Young (see above, p. 373) arrived in Paris about
a month after the Estates had come together. He
reports (June 8, 1789) :

The king, court, nobility, clergy, army, and parliament
[i.e. parlefnents'\ are nearly in the same situation. All these
consider with equal dread the ideas of liberty now afloat,
except the first, who, for reasons obvious to those who know
his character, troubles himself little, even with circumstances
that concern his power the most intimately. . . .

The business going forward at present in the pamphlet
shops of Paris is incredible. I went to the Palais Royal to
see what new things were published, and to procure a cata-
logue of all. Every hour produces something new. Thirteen
came out to-day, sixteen yesterday, and ninety-two last week.

Nineteen-twentieths of these productions are in favor of
liberty, and commonly violent against the clergy and the
nobility. I have to-day bespoke many of this description
that have reputation ; but inquiring for such as had appeared
on the other side of the question, to my astonishment I find
there are but two or three that have merit enough to be
known.

But the coffee-houses in the Palais Royal present yet more
singular and astonishing spectacles : they are not only
crowded within, but other expectant crowds are at the doors
and windows, listening a gorge deploy'e to certain orators, who
from chairs or tables harangue each his little audience. The
eagerness with which they are heard, and the thunder of
applause they receive for every sentiment of more than com-
mon hardiness or violence against the present government,
cannot easily be imagined. I am all amazement at the min-
istry permitting such nests and hotbeds of sedition and
revolt, which disseminate amongst the people every hour
principles that by and by must be opposed with vigor; and
therefore it seems little short of madness to allow the propa-
gation at present.

Everything conspires to render the present period in
France critical. The want of bread is terrible ; accounts

The French Revolution

403

arrive every moment from the provinces of riots and dis-
turbances, and calling in the military to preserve the peace
of the markets. . . .

June IS- This has been a rich day, and such an one as
ten years ago none could believe would ever arrive in France;
a very important debate being expected on what, in our
House of Commons, would be termed the state of the nation.
My friend, Monsieur Lazowski, and myself were at Versailles
at eight in the morning. We went immediately to the hall
of the states to secure good seats in the gallery ; we found
some deputies already there, and a pretty numerous audience
collected. The room is too large ; none but stentorian lungs
or the finest, clearest voices can be heard. However, the
very size of the apartment, which admits two thousand peo-
ple, gave a dignity to the scene. It was indeed an interest-
ing one. The spectacle of the representatives of twenty-five
millions of people, just emerging from the evils of two hun-
dred years of arbitrary power, and rising to the blessings of
a freer constitution, assembled with open doors under the
eye of the public, was framed to call into animated feelings
every latent spark, every emotion of a liberal bosom ; to
banish whatever ideas might intrude of their being a peo-
ple too often hostile to my own country, and to dwell with
pleasure on the glorious idea of happiness to a great nation.

Monsieur I’Abbe Sieyes opened the debate. He is one
of the most zealous sticklers for the popular cause ; car-
ries his ideas not to a regulation of the present government,
which he thinks too bad to be regulated at all, but wishes
to see it absolutely overturned, — being in fact a violent
republican : this is the character he commonly bears, and in
his pamphlets he seems pretty much to justify such an idea.
He speaks ungracefully and uneloquently, but logically, —
or rather reads so, for he read his speech, which was pre-
pared. His motion, or rather string of motions, was to de-
clare themselves the representatives known and verified of
the French nation, admitting the right of all absent deputies
[the nobility and clergy] to be received among them on the
verification of their powers.

Arthur
Young de-
scribes the
important
session of
June 15.

Abbe Sieyfes.

404

Readings in European His-tory

Mirabeau’s

speech.

Disorderljf
method of
procedure
in the
Assembly.

Monsieur de Mirabeau spoke without notes for near an
hour, with a warmth, animation, and eloquence that entitles
him to the reputation of an undoubted orator. He opposed
the words “known” and “verified,” in the proposition of
Abbe Sieyes, with great force of reasoning, and proposed
in lieu that they should declare themselves simply Reprhen-
tatives du peuple Erancoise ; that no veto should exist against
their resolves in any other assembly ; that all [existing] taxes
are illegal, but should be granted during the present sessions
of the states, and no longer ; that the debt of the king should
become the debt of the nation, and be secured on funds
accordingly. Monsieur de Mirabeau was well heard, and his
proposition much applauded.

In regard to their general method of proceeding, there
are two circumstances in which they are very deficient. The
spectators in the galleries are allowed to interfere in the de-
bates by clapping their hands, and other noisy expressions of
approbation : this is grossly indecent ; it is also dangerous ;
for, if they are permitted to express approbation, they are,
by parity of reason, allowed expressions of dissent, and
they may hiss as well as clap ; which it is said they have
sometimes done ; this would be to overrule the debate and
influence the deliberations.

Another circumstance is the want of order among them-
selves. More than once to-day there were an hundred
members on their legs at a time, and Monsieur Bailly abso-
lutely without power to keep order.

III. The Decree abolishing the Feudal System
(August n, 1789)

The abolition of the feudal system, which took place
during the famous night session of August 4-5, 1789,
was caused by the reading of a report on the misery and
disorder which prevailed in the provinces. The report
declares that “ Letters from all the provinces indicate
that property of all kinds is a prey to the most criminal

The French Revolution

405

violence; on all sides chateaux are being burned, con-
vents destroyed, and farms abandoned ‘to pillage. The
taxes, the feudal dues, all are extinct ; the laws are with-
out force, and the magistrates without authority.” With
the hope of pacifying and encouraging the people, the
Assembly, in a fervor of enthusiasm and excitement,
straightway abolished many of the ancient abuses. The
document here given is the revised decree, completed
a week later.

Article I. The National Assembly hereby completely
abolishes the feudal system. It decrees that, among the
existing rights and dues, both feudal and censuel^ all those
originating in or representing real or personal serfdom shall
be abolished without indem'nification. All other dues are
declared redeemable, the terms and mode of redemption to
be fixed by the National Assembly. Those of the said dues
which are not extinguished by this decree shall continue to
be collected until indemnification shall take place.

II. The exclusive right to maintain pigeon houses and
dovecotes is abolished. The pigeons shall be confined dur-
ing the seasons fixed by the community. During such
periods they shall be looked upon as game, and every one
shall have the right to kill them upon his own land.

III. The exclusive right to hunt and to maintain un-
inclosed warrens is likewise abolished, and every landowner
shall have the right to kill, or to have destroyed on his own
land, all kinds of game, observing, however, such police
regulations as may be established with a view to the safety
of the public.

All hunting capitaineries^ including the royal forests, and
all hunting rights under whatever denomination, are likewise
abolished. Provision shall be made, however, in a manner
compatible with the regard due to property and liberty,
for maintaining the personal pleasures of the king.

1 This refers to the cens, a perpetual due similar to the payments
made by English copyholders. 2 gee above, p. 365.

397. Decree
abolishing
the feudal
system.

Extinction of
all hunting
rights.

4o6 ’

Readings in European History

Manorial

courts

suppressed.

Tithes

abolished

The president of the Assembly shall be commissioned
to ask of the king the recall of those sent to the galleys or
exiled, simply for violations of the hunting regulations, as
well as for the release of those at present imprisoned for
offenses of this kind, and the dismissal of such cases as are
now pending.

IV. All manorial courts are hereby suppressed without
indemnification. But the magistrates of these courts shall
continue to perform their functions until such time as the
National Assembly shall provide for the establishment of a
new judicial system.

V. Tithes of every description, as well as the dues which
have been substituted for them, under whatever denomi-
nation they are known or collected (even when compounded
for), possessed by secular or regular congregations, by
holders of benefices, members of corporations (including the
Order of Malta and other religious and military orders), as
well as those devoted to the maintenance of churches, those
impropriated to lay persons, and those substituted for the
portion congrue^ are abolished, on condition, however, that
some other method be devised to provide for the expenses
of divine worship, the support of the officiating clergy, for
the assistance of the poor, for repairs and rebuilding of
churches and parsonages, and for the maintenance of all
institutions, seminaries, schools, academies, asylums, and
organizations to which the present funds are devoted. Until
such provision shall be made and the former possessors
shall enter upon the enjoyment of an income on the new
system, the National Assembly decrees that the said tithes
shall continue to be collected according to law and in the
customary manner.

Other tithes, of whatever nature they may be, shall
be redeemable in such manner as the Assembly shall
determine. Until this matter is adjusted, the National
Assembly decrees that these, too, shall continue to be
collected.

^ This expression refers to the minimum remuneration fixed for the
priests.

The French Revolution

407

VI. All perpetual ground rents, payable either in money
or in kind, of whatever nature they may be, whatever their
origin and to whomsoever they may be due, . . . shall be
redeemable at a rate fixed by the Assembly. No due shall
in the future be created which is not redeemable.

VII. The sale of judicial and municipal offices shall
be abolished forthwith. Justice shall be dispensed gratis.
Nevertheless the magistrates at present holding such offices
shall continue to exercise their functions and to receive their
emoluments until the Assembly shall have made provision
for indemnifying them.

VIII. The fees of the country priests are abolished, and
shall be discontinued so soon as provision shall be made for
increasing the minimum salary \_portion congrue^ of the par-
ish priests and the payment to the curates. A regulation
shall be drawn up to determine the status of the priests in
the towns.

IX. Pecuniary privileges, personal or real, in the pay-
ment of taxes are abolished forever. Taxes shall be col-
lected from all the citizens, and from all property, in the
same manner and in the same form. Plans shall be consid-
ered by which the taxes shall be paid proportionally by all,
even for the last six months of the current year.

X. Inasmuch as a national constitution and public liberty
are of more advantage to the provinces than the privileges
which some of these enjoy, and inasmuch as the surrender
of such privileges is essential to the intimate union of all
parts of the realm, it is decreed that all the peculiar privi-
leges, pecuniary or otherwise, of the provinces, principali-
ties, districts, cantons, cities, and communes, are once for
ail abolished and are absorbed into the law common to all
Frenchmen.

XI. All citizens, without distinction of birth, are eligible
to any office or dignity, whether ecclesiastical, civil, or mili-
tary ; and no profession shall imply any derogation.

XII. Hereafter no remittances shall be made for annates
or for any other purpose to the court of Rome, the vice
legation at Avignon, or to the nunciature at Lucerne. The

Sale of offices
discontinued

Exemptions
from taxa-
tion abol-
ished.

All local
differences
in the law
abolished.

Papal

powers

reduced.

4o8

Readings in Europeaii History

Pluralities.

Pensions.

clergy of the diocese shall apply to their bishops in regard
to the filling of benefices and dispensations, the which shall
be granted gratis without regard to reservations, expectan-
cies, and papal months, all the churches of France enjoying
the same freedom.

XIII. [This article abolishes various ecclesiastical dues.]

XIV. Pluralities shall not be permitted hereafter in cases
where the revenue from the benefice or benefices held shall
exceed the sum of three thousand livres. Nor shall any indi-
vidual be allowed to enjoy several pensions from benefices,
or a pension and a benefice, if the revenue which he already
enjoys from such sources exceeds the same sum of three
thousand livres.

XV. The National Assembly shall consider, in conjunc-
tion with the king, the report which is to be submitted to
it relating to pensions, favors, and salaries, with a view to
suppressing all such as are not deserved, and reducing
those which shall prove excessive ; and the amount shall
be fixed which the king may in the future disburse for this
purpose.

XVI. The National Assembly decrees that a medal shall
be struck in memory of the recent grave and important delib-
erations for the welfare of France, and that a Te Deum shall
be chanted in gratitude in all the parishes and the churches
of France.

XVII. The National Assembly solemnly proclaims the
king, Louis XVI, the Restorer of French Liberty.

XVIII. The National Assembly shall present itself in a
body before the king, in order to submit to him the decrees
which have just been passed, to tender to him the tokens of
its most respectful gratitude, and to pray him to permit the
Te Deum to be chanted in his chapel, and to be present
himself at this service.

XIX. The National Assembly shall consider, immediately
after the constitution, the drawing up of the laws necessary
for the development of the principles which it has laid down
in the present decree. The latter shall be transmitted by
the deputies without delay to all the provinces, together with

The French Revolution 409

the decree of the loth of this month, in order that it may
be printed, published, read from the parish pulpits, and
posted up wherever it shall be deemed necessary.

IV. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
THE Citizen

A declaration of the rights of man, which had been
demanded by many of the cahiers, was the part of the
new constitution which the Assembly decided (August
4) should be first drawn up. The members recognized
that they were imitating an American precedent in doing
this. Our first state constitutions, several of which were
preceded by elaborate bills of rights, had very early been
translated into French.

Almost every one of the articles in the declaration
recalls some abuse of the Ancien Regime. This docu-
ment has exercised a great influence upon Europe, and
was imitated in many of the constitutions of the nine-
teenth century.

The representatives of the French people, organized as a
National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or
contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public
calamities and of the corruption of governments, have deter-
mined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalien-
able, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration,
being constantly before all the members of the social body,
shall remind them continually of their rights and duties ; in
order that the acts of the legislative power, as well as those
of the executive power, may be compared at any moment
with the objects and purposes of all political institutions
and may thus be more respected ; and, lastly, in order that
the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple
and incontestable principles, shall tend to the maintenance
of the constitution and redound to the happiness of all.

398. Decla-
ration of
the rights
of man.

410

Readings in European History

Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims,
in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme
Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen :

Article i. Men are born and remain free and equal in
rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the
general good.

2. The aim of all political association is the preservation
of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights
are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in
the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any au-
thority which does not proceed directly from the nation.

4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which
injures no one else ; hence the exercise of the natural rights
of each man has no limits except those which assure to the
other members of the society the enjoyment of the same
rights. These limits can only be determined by law.

5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to
society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden
by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not pro-
vided for by law.

6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citi-
zen has a right to participate personally, or through his rep-
resentative, in its formation. It must be the same for all,
whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in
the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and
to all public positions and occupations, according to their
abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues
and talents.

7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned
except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed
by law. Any one soliciting, transmitting, executing, or caus-
ing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be pun-
ished. But any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of
the law shall submit without delay, as resistance constitutes
an offense.

8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as
are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer

The French RevoliUion

411

punishment except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law
passed and promulgated before the commission of the
offense.

9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have
been declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable,
all harshness not essential to the securing of the prisoner’s
person shall be severely repressed by law.

10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opin-
ions, including his religious views, provided their manifesta-
tion does not disturb the public order established by law.

11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one
of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen
may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but
shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall
be defined by law.

12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen
requires public military forces. These forces are, therefore,
established for the good of all and not for the personal
advantage of those to whom they shall be intrusted.

13. A common contribution is essential for the mainte-
nance of the public forces and for the cost of administra-
tion. This should be equitably distributed among all the
citizens in proportion to their means.

14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either person-
ally or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the
public contribution ; to grant this freely ; to know to what
uses it is put ; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assess-
ment and of collection and the duration of the taxes.

15. Society has the right to require of every public agent
an account of his administration.

16. A society in which the observance of the law is not
assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no con-
stitution at all.

17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no
one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity,
legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only
on condition that the owner shall have been previously and
equitably indemnified.

412

Readings in European History

V. Mirabeau’s Fears after the “October Days”

Mirabeau is generally recognized as the ablest states-
man in France during the opening of the Revolution,
After the mob had carried off the king to Paris during
the “ October Days,” Mirabeau was, in spite of the
king’s and queen’s abhorrence and distrust of him,
brought into relations with the court and permitted to
give advice which, however, was never taken. His first
communication to the king (October 1 5) furnishes a
wonderful picture of the situation in France and the
dangers to which the king was exposed in Paris, There
is scarcely a feature of the approaching reign of terror
which escapes Mirabeau’s prophetic insight. The king,
shortly after Mirabeau’s death (in April, 1791), tried to
escape from P'rance in precisely the manner against
which the great statesman had most urgently warned
him, and with precisely the results which Mirabeau fore-
cast.

399. Mira-
beau’s ad-
vice to the
king in Octo-
ber, 1789.
(Extracts.)

The king could not refuse to come to Paris, and whether
the National Assembly could have refused to follow him or
not, it had not, in any case, the power to detain him. Is the
king free in Paris ? He is, in the sense that no foreign will
has taken the place of his own, but he is certainly not at
liberty to leave Paris, He may not select those who guard
his person ; he cannot even exercise any direct control over
the militia to whom his safety is confided. The National
Assembly is free in Paris so far as its deliberations are con-
cerned, but it could not adjourn to another town in the king-
dom, nor can it guarantee to the delegate of the nation ^
more freedom than he already has.

Will the king enjoy in Paris entire personal security even ?
Placed as he is, the least mischance may compromise his

1 The king.

The French Revolution

413

safety ! It is threatened by external movements, commotions
within, party divisions, the errors of enthusiasm and of impa-
tience, and, above all, by the violent collision of the capital
with the provinces. Although Paris is powerful, it contains
many causes for disturbance. Its inhabitants, when excited,
are irresistible. Winter is approaching and food may be
wanting. Bankruptcy may be declared. What will Paris be
three months hence? Assuredly a poorhouse, perhaps a
theater of horrors. Is it to such a place that the head of the
nation should intrust his existence and our only hope?

The ministers are without resources. Only one of them
enjoys any popularity, and he has always been supported
rather by certain enthusiastic admirers than by a party.
But his resources are well known, and he has just shown
himself in his true light. His empty brain has never con-
templated more than to prop up here and there an edifice
which is giving away at every point. He is anxious to pro-
long the death agony until the moment he has chosen for
his political retirement, when, as in 1781, he plans to leave
an alleged balance between the receipts and expenditures,
and some millions in the royal treasury. What will become
of the nation after this useless attempt, which renders bank-
ruptcy inevitable? We are only weary and discouraged as
yet ; it is the moment of despair which is to be feared, . . .

Public strength lies only in public opinion and in the
revenues of the state. But every bond of public opinion is
severed. Only the direct taxes are paid at all, and these
only partially, although the half of our taxes are indirect.
Several years will be required to replace what six months
have just destroyed, and the impatience of the people, which
is increased by their misery, is apparent on every hand,

A still more fatal emergency is to be anticipated. The
National Assembly, which is so badly constituted in principle,
composed as it is of discordant factions laboriously brought
together, can see that each day the confidence in its work is
diminishing. . . .

The respect which an exalted title and a great revolution
seen from afar inspires, as well as hope, so essential to the

Danger of
disorder in
Paris.

Necker’s

incapacity.

General loss
of respect for
the National
Assembly.

King’s criti-
cal position
in Paris.

414 Readings in European History

people, still sustains it. But each day this great cause is
deserted by a portion of those who make public opinion,
although it demands the closest cooperation of every faction
and party in the realm. The people are, moreover, only
informed of the almost inevitable mistakes of a legislative
body which is too numerous, whose footing is insecure, and
which has gone through no apprenticeship : no emphasis is
laid upon the ease with which such mistakes could be cor-
rected by the next legislature. The only way to save the state
and the nascent constitution is to put the king in a position
which will allow him, without delay, to unite with his people.

Paris has long swallowed up the taxes of the kingdom.
Paris is the seat of the financial regime which the provinces
loathe. Paris has created the debt. Paris, by its miserable
stock gambling, has destroyed public credit, and has com-
promised the honor of the nation. Must the National
Assembly, too, regard this city only, and sacrifice the whole
kingdom for it? Several provinces fear that the capital will
dominate the Assembly and direct the course of its work.

What then is to be done? Is the king free? His free-
dom is not complete, nor is it recognized. Is the king safe?
I do not think so. Can even Paris save him alone? No;
Paris is lost if she is not brought to order and forced to
moderation. Will the National Assembly finish its session
without being harassed by the disturbances which a thousand
circumstances lead us to anticipate? He would be bold,
certainly, who should guarantee this !

Should no successful effort be made to give another direc-
tion to public opinion, to enlighten the people as to their
true interests, to prepare, by instructions given to constitu-
ents, the spirit of the new legislature, will the state recover
its tranquillity, the army its strength, the executive power its
influence, and the monarch his real rights, whose exercise is
essential to public liberty? Or will the monarchy be shaken
to its foundation and very probably dismembered, — that is
to say, dissolved? It is easy to foresee what is to be appre-
hended by what has already happened. Some measures must
obviously be taken, as all the facts clearly indicate.

The F7'ench Revolution

415

Several methods present themselves, but there are those
which would entail the most terrible evils, and which I only-
mention to deter the king from a course which would mean
certain destruction. To withdraw to Metz — or upon any
other frontier — would be to declare war upon the nation
and abdicate the throne. A king, who is the only safeguard
of his people, does not fly before his people. . . . He does
not excite all manner of suspicion against himself, nor does
he place himself in a position where he can only reenter his
possessions with arms in his hands, or be reduced to suppli-
cate foreign aid.

Who can say to what a state of frenzy the French nation
might be aroused if it saw its king abandoning it in order to
join a group of exiles, and become one of them himself, or
how it would prepare for resistance and oppose the forces he
might collect? Even I should denounce the monarch after
such an act.

To withdraw into the interior of the kingdom and call
together the entire nobility would be a policy no less hazard-
ous. Justly or not, the whole nation, which in its ignorance
confuses nobility and aristocracy, has long looked upon the
gentry en masse as their implacable enemies. The abolition of
the feudal system was the expiation of ten centuries of mad-
ness. The disturbance might have been lessened, but nowit
is too late, and the decree is irrevocable. To join the nobility
would be worse than for the king to throw himself into a
foreign and hostile army. He has to choose between a great
nation and a few individuals, between peace and civil war
carried on upon exceedingly unequal terms. . . .

It is certain, in short, that a great revolution is necessary
to save the kingdom ; that the nation has rights, that it is on
the way to recover them all, and that it is not sufflcient simply
to reestablish them, but they must be consolidated; that a
national convention can alone regenerate France; that the
Assembly has already made several laws which it is indis-
pensable to adopt ; and that there is no safety for the king
and for the state except in the closest alliance between the
monarch and his people.

The king
should on
no account
flee to the
boundary.

The popular
distrust of
the nobility.

4i6

Readings in European History

The king
should retire
to Rouen and
summon the
Assembly
to him.

All the methods which I have mentioned having been
rejected, I will make the following observations upon a final
plan which is certainly not without peril. . . .

Having taken certain precautions, the king may leave his
palace in open day and retire to Rouen. He should select
that city or its environs, because it is the center of the king-
dom, because . . . such a choice proclaims that there is no
intention of flight, and that the only object is to conciliate
the provinces. . . .

Before the king’s departure a proclamation should be pre-
pared, addressed to all the provinces, in which the king should
say, among other things, that he is about to throw himself into
the arms of his people; that violence has been done him at
Versailles ; that he was in a measure watched at Paris, and
was not free to come and go, as every citizen is and ought to be.
For the truth of these statements proofs should be furnished.

The king should say, moreover, that he recognizes that
this situation serves as an excuse to the ill disposed not to
obey the decrees of the National Assembly and the sanction
given by him to these decrees, all of which could easily com-
promise a revolution in which he is as much interested as
the most ardent friends of liberty ; that he hopes to be insep-
arable from his people, and that the selection which he has
made of Rouen proves this beyond controversy; that he is
the first king of his race who has formed the purpose of
investing the nation with all its rights, and that he has per-
sisted in this design in spite of his ministers and the counsels
by which princes are corrupted ; that he has adopted with-
out reserve such and such decrees of the National Assembly;
that he renews his sanction and acceptance, and that his
sentiments in this matter are unchangeable.

The proclamation should announce that the king is about
to call the National Assembly to him in order that it may
continue its work, but that he will soon summon a new
convention to judge, confirm, modify and ratify the work of
the first Assembly.

The king should state that he is ready to submit to the
greatest personal sacrifices, since there are to be no more

The French Revolution

417

promises of economy which are never carried out ; that he
will live like a private individual ; that a million will suffice
him for his personal expenses and those incurred as head
of a family; that he asks no more, and requires but a sin-
gle table for himself and his family; that all the luxury of
the throne should consist in the perfecting of the civil
government and in the wise liberality of distinctly national
outlays. . . .

The king should declare that, although he has resolved
upon all possible personal sacrifice, he by no means holds
that the same retrenchment can be applied to all the pay-
ments which have, for a long time, been granted to a host
of citizens who have at present no other means of support^
and he requests the nation to consider that public peace is
not to be successfully reestablished by ruining and driving
to despair so many thousand persons; that for the rest, he
takes his people to witness as to his personal conduct in the
past; that he will not subdue them by arms, but by his love;
that he confides his honor and safety to French loyalty;
that he only wishes the happiness of the citizens, and that
his own pleasure is of no further importance. This procla-
mation of a good king, this peace manifesto at once firm and
popular, ought to be forwarded by extraordinary couriers to
all the provinces, and all those in command should be noti-
fied to be on their guard. . . .

VI. Address of the National Assembly to the
French People (February ii, 1790)

The National Assembly, as it progresses in its work, is
receiving upon every hand the felicitations of the provinces,
cities, and villages, testimonials of the public satisfaction and
expressions of grateful appreciation ; but murmurs reach it
as well, from those who are affected or injured by the blows
aimed at so many abuses and prejudices. While occupied
with the welfare of all, the Assembly is solicitous in regard
to individual ills. It can forgive prejudice, bitterness, and
injustice, but it feels it to be one of its duties to warn you

400. The
National
Assembly
reviews its
achieve-
ments dur-
ing the
previous six
months.
(February,
1790.)

4i8

Readings in Enropea?i History

The Estates
General con-
verted into
a National
Assembly.

Abolition of
privileges.

against the influence of calumny, and to quiet the empty
terrors which some are vainly trying to arouse in you. To
what have they not resorted in order to mislead and dis-
courage you They pretend to be unaware of the good that
the National Assembly has accomplished; this we propose
to recall to your mind. Objections have been raised against
what has been done; these we propose to meet. Doubts
and anxiety have been disseminated as to what we propose
to do in the future ; this we will explain to you.

What has the Assembly accomplished? In the midst of
storms, it has, with a firm hand, traced the principles of a
constitution which will assure your liberty forever. The
rights of man had been misconceived and insulted for
centuries ; they have been reestablished for all humanity
in that declaration, which shall serve as an everlasting war
cry against oppressors and as a law for the legislators them-
selves. The nation had lost the right to decree both the
laws and the taxes; this right has been restored to it, while
at the same time the true principles of monarchy have been
solemnly established, as well as the inviolability of the au-
gust head of the nation and the heredity of the throne in a
family so dear to all Frenchmen.

Formerly you had only the Estates General; now you
have a National Assembly of which you can never be again
deprived. In the Estates General the several orders, which
were necessarily at odds and under the domination of ancient
pretensions, dictated the decrees and could check the free
action of the national will. These orders no longer exist;
all have disappeared before the honorable title of citizen.
All being citizens alike, you demanded citizen-defenders
and, at the first summons, the National Guard arose, which,
called together by patriotism and commanded by honor, has
everywhere maintained or established order and watches with
untiring zeal over the safety of each for the benefit of all.

Privileges without number, irreconcilably at enmity with
every good, made up our entire public law. These have
been destroyed, and at the word of this Assembly the
provinces which were the most jealous of their own privileges

The French Revolution

419

applauded their disappearance, feeling that they gained
rather than lost thereby. A vexatious feudal system, power-
ful even in its ruin, covered the whole of France ; it has now
disappeared, never to return. In the provinces you were
subject to a harassing administration; from this you have
been freed. Arbitrary commands threatened the liberty of
the citizens; they have been done away with. You desired
a complete organization of the municipalities ; this you have
just received, and the creation of these bodies, chosen by
your votes, offers, at this moment, a most irtiposing spectacle.
At the same time the National Assembly has finished the
task of a new division of the kingdom, which alone might
serve to remove the last trace of former prejudices, substitute
for provincial selfishness the true love for one’s country, and
serve as the basis of a just system of representation.^ . . .

This, Frenchmen, is our work, or rather yours, for we are
only your organ, and you have enlightened, encouraged, and
sustained us in our labors. What a glorious period is this
which we at last enjoy ! How honorable the heritage which
you may transmit to your posterity! Raised to the rank of
citizens; admissible to every form of employment; enlight-
ened censors of the administration when it is not actually in
your hands ; certain that all will be done by you and for
you; equal before the law; free to act, to speak, to write;
owing no account to individuals but always to the common
will ; — what condition more happy! Is there a single citizen
worthy of the name who would dare look back, who would
rebuild once more the ruins which surround us, in order
again to contemplate the former structure?

Yet what has not been said and done to weaken the
natural impressions which such advantages should produce
upon you? It is urged that we have destroyed everything;
everything must, then, be reconstructed. But what is there
which need be so much regretted? If we would know,
let those be questioned in regard to the objects of reform

1 The enumeration of a few further reforms is here omitted. The
Assembly notes the abolition of the sale of offices and the partial
extinction of the salt tax.

The Assem-
bly replies to
the accusa-
tions made
against it.

420 Readings in Eicropean History

or destruction who did not profit by them ; let even men
of good faith be questioned who did profit by them. But let
us leave one side those who, in order to ennoble the demands
of purely personal interests, now choose as the objects of
their commiseration the fate of those to whom they were
formerly quite indifferent. We may then judge if each sub-
ject of reform does not enjoy the approval of all of those
whose opinions should be considered.

Some say that we have acted too precipitately, as many
others proclaim 'that we have been too deliberate. Too
much precipitation ! Does not every one know that only by
attacking and overthrowing all the abuses at the same time
can we hope to be freed from them without danger of their
return; that then, and then only, every one becomes inter-
ested in the reestablishment of order ; that slow and partial
reforms have always resulted in no reform at all, and that
an abuse preserved becomes the support, and before long
the means of restoring all those which we thought to have
destroyed ?

Our meetings are said to be disorderly; what of that, if
the decrees which proceed from them are wise? We are
indeed far from wishing to hold up for your admiration the
details of all our debates. More than once they have been
a source of annoyance to us, but at .the same time we have
felt that it was very unjust to take advantage of this dis-
order ; and indeed this impetuosity is the almost inevitable
effect of the first conflict which has perhaps ever been fought
by every right principle against every form of error.

We are accused of having aspired to a chimerical per-
fection. A curious reproach indeed, which, if one looks at
it closely, proves to be only an ill-disguised desire for the
perpetuation of the abuses. The National Assembly has
not allowed itself to be influenced by motives of servile
interest or pusillanimity. It has had the courage, or rather
the sense, to believe that useful ideas, essential to the
human race, were not destined simply to adorn the pages
of a book, and that the Supreme Being, when he granted
the attribute of perfectibility to man, did not forbid him

The Fremh Revolution

421

to apply this peculiar appanage of his nature to the social
organization, which has become the most comprehensive
of his interests and almost the most important of his
needs.

It is impossible, some say, to regenerate an old and cor-
rupt nation. Let such objectors learn that there is nothing
corrupt but those who wish to perpetuate corrupting abuses,
and that a nation becomes young again the moment it
resolves to be born anew in liberty^. Behold the regenera-
tion ! How the nation’s heart already beats with joy and
hope, and how pure, elevated, and patriotic are its senti-
ments ! With what enthusiasm do the people daily solicit
the honor of being allowed to take the oath of citizen ! —
but why consider so despicable a reproach ? Shall the
National Assembly be reduced to excuse itself for not hav-
ing rendered the French people desperate ?

But we have done nothing for the people, their pretended
friends cry on all sides. Yet it is the people’s cause which
is everywhere triumphant. Nothing done for the people !
Does not every abuse which is abolished prepare the way
for, and assure to them, relief ? Is there an abuse which does
not weigh upon the people ? They do not complain, — it is
because the excess of their ills has stifled complaint. They
are now unhappy, — say better that they are still unhappy,
— but not for long; that we swear.

We have destroyed the power of the executive — no, say
rather the power of the ministers, which, in reality, for-
merly destroyed or often degraded the executive power. We
have enlightened the executive power by showing it its true
rights; we have, above all, ennobled it by bringing it to the
true source of its power, the power of the people. The exec-
utive power is now without force, — against the constitution
and the law, that is true, but in support of them it will be
more powerful than ever before.

The people are aroused, — yes, for its defense, and with
reason. But, it is urged, in several places there have been
unfortunate occurrences. Should the National Assembly
be reproached for these ? Should disasters be attributed

422

Readings in European History

to it which it mourns, which it would have prevented and
arrested by the force of its decrees, and which the here-
after indissoluble union between the two powers and the
irresistible action of all the national forces will doubtless
check ?

We have exceeded our powers. The reply is simple. We
were incontestably sent to make a constitution : this was the
wish and the need of the whole of France. But was it pos-
sible to create a constitution and form an even imperfect
body of constitutional decrees, without the plenitude of
power which we have exercised ? We will say more : with-
out the National Assembly France was lost; without the
recognition of the principle which has governed all our
decrees, of submitting the decision of every matter to a
majority of votes, freely cast, it is impossible to conceive,
we will not say a constitution, but even the prospect of
destroying permanently the least of the abuses. This prin-
ciple embodies an eternal truth and has been recognized
throughout France. It receives recognition in a thousand
ways in the numerous ratifications which oppose the swarm
of libels reproaching us for exceeding our powers. These
addresses, felicitations, compliments, and patriotic resolu-
tions,— what a conclusive confirmation do they constitute
of those powers which some would contest !

These, Frenchmen, are the reproaches which have been
directed against your representatives in the mass of culpable
writings in which a tone of civic grief is assumed. But their
authors flatter themselves in vain that we are to be discour-
aged. Our courage is redoubled ; you will not long wait for
the results.^ ... We will pursue our laborious task, devot-
ing ourselves to the great work of drawing up the constitu-
tion— your work as well as ours. We will complete it,
aided by the wisdom of all France.

1 The reforms which the Assembly announces for the future are
omitted here. The chief were an enlightened system of taxes, a reor-
ganization of the Church, new codes of the criminal and civil law, and
a national system of education.

The F7'ench Revolutioji

423

VII. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy

The reorganization of the Church which followed upon 401. The
the confiscation of its vast possessions is an excellent
illustration of the spirit of the National Assembly. The the clergy
demand for complete uniformity and simplification is ^790^/^’
especially pronounced in the reform of this most vener-
able institution of France, the anomalies and intricacies
of which were hallowed not only by age but by religious
reverence. The chief articles are given below, and indi-
cate how completely the Assembly desired to bring the
Church under rules similar to those which they were
drawing up for the state.

The National Assembly, after having heard the report of
the ecclesiastical committee, has decreed and do decree the
following as constitutional articles :

Title 1

Article I. Each department shall form a single dio- New bishop-
cese, and each diocese shall have the same extent and the
same limits as the department. ^ depJtLltl

II. The seat of the bishoprics of the eighty-three depart-
ments of the kingdom shall be established as follows : that
of the department of the Lower Seine at Rouen ; that of the
department of Calvados at Bayeux.^ . . .

All other bishoprics in the eighty-three departments of
the kingdom, which are not included by name in the present
article, are, and forever shall be, abolished.

The kingdom shall be divided into ten metropolitan dis-
tricts, of which the sees shall be situated at Rouen, Rheims,

Besan^on, Rennes, Paris, Bourges, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Aix,
and Lyons. These archbishoprics shall have the following
denominations : that of Rouen shall be called the Archbish-
opric of the Coast of the Channel.^ . . .

1 The names of the remaining episcopal sees are here omitted.

2 The remaining names of the archbishoprics are here omitted.

The jurisdic-
tion of no
foreign
bishops to be
any longer
recognized.

New parish
divisions.

General
abolition of
ancient
ecclesiastical
offices.

Election of
bishops and
priests by
the regular
voters.

424 Readings in Europeati History

IV. No church or parish of France nor any French citi-
zen may acknowledge upon any occasion, or upon any pre-
text whatsoever, the authority of an ordinary bishop or of an
archbishop whose see shall be under the supremacy of a
foreign power, nor that of his representatives residing in
France or elsewhere; without prejudice, however, to the
unity of the faith and the intercourse which shall be main-
tained with the visible head of the universal Church, as
hereafter provided.

VI. A new arrangement and division of all the parishes
of the kingdom shall be undertaken immediately in concert
with the bishop and the district administration.

XX. All titles and offices other than those mentioned in
the present constitution, dignities, canonries, prebends, half
prebends, chapels, chaplainships, both in cathedral and col-
legiate churches, all regular and secular chapters for either
sex, abbacies and priorships, both regular and in commendam,
for either sex, as well as all other benefices and prestimonies
in general, of whatever kind or denomination, are from the
day of this decree extinguished and abolished and shall never
be reestablished in any form.

Title II

Article I. Beginning with the day of publication of the
present decree, there shall be but one mode of choosing
bishops and parish priests, namely that of election.

II. All elections shall be by ballot and shall be decided
by the absolute majority of the votes.

III. The election of bishops shall take place according
to the forms and by the electoral body designated in the
decree of December 22, 1789, for the election of members
of the departmental assembly.

VI. The election of a bishop can only take place or be
undertaken upon Sunday, in the principal church of the
chief town of the department, at the close of the parish mass,
at which all the electors are required to be present.

VII. In order to be eligible to a bishopric, one must have
fulfilled for fifteen years at least the duties of the church

TJie French Revolution

425

ministry in the diocese, as a parish priest, officiating minister,
or curate, or as superior, or as directing vicar of the seminary.

XIX. The new bishop may not apply to the pope for any
form of confirmation, but shall write to him, as to the visible
head of the universal Church, as a testimony to the unity of
faith and communion maintained with him.

XXL Before the ceremony of consecration begins, the
bishop elect shall take a solemn oath, in the presence of the
municipal officers, of the people, and of the clergy, to guard
with care the faithful of his diocese who are confided to him,
to be loyal to the nation, the law, and the king, and to support
with all his power the constitution decreed by the National
Assembly and accepted by the king.

XXV. The election of the parish priests shall take place
according to the forms and by the electors designated in the
decree of December 22, 1789, for the election of members of
the administrative assembly of the district.

XL. Bishoprics and cures shall be looked upon as vacant
until those elected to fill them shall have taken the oath
above mentioned.

Title III

Article I. The ministers of religion, performing as they
do the first and most important functions of society and
forced to live continuously in the place where they discharge
the offices to which they have been called by the confidence
of the people, shall be supported by the nation.

II. Every bishop, priest, and officiating clergyman in a
chapel of ease shall be furnished' with a suitable dwelling, on
condition, however, that the occupant shall make all the neces-
sary current repairs. This shall not affect at present, in any
way, those parishes where the priest now receives a money
equivalent instead of his dwelling. The departments shall,
moreover, have cognizance of suits arising in this connection,
brought by the parishes and by the priests. Salaries shall
be assigned to each, as indicated below.

III. The bishop of Paris shall receive fifty thousand livres ;
the bishops of the cities having a population of fifty thousand

Bishops
required to
take an oath
to support
the new
constitution.

Salaries of
bishops and
priests.

Bishops and
priests must
remain in
residence and
perform their
duties.

426 Readings in European History

or more, twenty thousand livres ; other bishops, twelve thou-
sand livres.

V. The salaries of the parish priests shall be as follows :
in Paris, six thousand livres ; in cities having a population
of fifty thousand or over, four thousand livres ; in those
having a population of less than fifty thousand and more
than ten thousand, three thousand livres ; in cities and towns
of which the population is below ten thousand and more than
three thousand, twenty-four hundred livres.

In all other Cities, towns, and villages where the parish
shall have a population between three thousand and twenty-
five hundred, two thousand livres ; in those between twenty-
five hundred and two thousand, eighteen hundred livres; in
those having a population of less than two thousand, and
more than one thousand, the salary shall be fifteen hundred
livres ; in those having one thousand inhabitants and under,
twelve hundred livres.

VII. The salaries m money of the ministers of religion
shall be paid every three months, in advance, by the treasurer
of the district.

XII. In view of the salary which is assured to them by
the present constitution, the bishops, parish priests, and
curates shall perform the episcopal and priestly functions
gratis.

Title IV

Article I. The law requiring the residence of ecclesi-
astics in the districts under their charge shall be strictly
observed. All vested with an ecclesiastical office or func-
tion shall be subject to this, without distinction or exception.

II. No bishop shall absent himself from his diocese more
than two weeks consecutively during the year, except in
case of real necessity and with the consent of the directory
of the department in which his see is situated.

III. In the same manner, the parish priests and the
curates may not absent themselves from the place of their
duties beyond the term fixed above, except for weighty
reasons, and even in such cases the priests must obtain

The Fremh Revolution

427

the permission both of their bishop and of the directory of
their district, and the curates that of the parish priest.

VI. Bishops, parish priests, and curates may, as active
citizens, be present at the primary and electoral assemblies ;
they may be chosen electors, or as deputies to the legisla-
tive body, or as members of the general council of the com-
munes or of the administrative councils of their districts or
departments.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Cahiers : Lowell, Eve of the French Revolution, Chapters XXI- A. Refer-
XXII, pp. 342-376 ; Cainbridge Modern History, Vol. VIII, pp. 134-144. ences.

The Pamphlets; Lowell, Chapter XX, pp. 322-341.

Convocation of the Estates General : Mathews, The French Revo-
lution, Chapter VIII, pp. 102-110; Stephens, H. Morse, History of
the French Revolution, Vol. I, Prologue, and Chapter I, pp. 1-54 ; Cam-
bridge Modern History, Vol. VIII, pp. 96-118.

Opening of the National Assembly: Mathews, Chapter IX,
pp. 111-124; Stephens, Chapter II, pp. 55-74; Cambridge Modern
History, Vol. Ill, pp. 145-158.

Fall of the Bastile: Mathews, Chapter X, pp. 125-137 ; Stephens,
pp. 128-145 ; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VIII, pp. 159-169.

The Country at Large in Summer of 1789: Stephens, Chapter VI,
pp. 169-197.

Abolition of the Ancien Regime: Mathews, Chapters XI-XII,
pp. 138-165.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy: Stephens, Chapter X,
pp. 291-309.

[For the full bibliography of the French Revolution, see close of the
following chapter.]

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE FIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC

I. The Flight of the King and the Origin of a
Republican Party

The National Assembly, which had done so much to
reform France, was drawing to a close in the summer of
1791, after two years of arduous labor. It was subject-
ing the new constitution which it had been drafting to a
final revision before it left the task of government to
the king and the Legislative Assembly, after carefully
defining and restricting the powers of both. The flight
of the king toward the eastern frontier, on June 20,
1791, served to show how slight was the chance that
the new government would succeed, when the monarch
was ready to desert his people in order to put himself in
the hands of foreign powers and of the runaway nobles.
The impression that the news of the king’s flight made
upon the people of Paris is described by Prudhomme, a
well-known journalist of the time, in his newspaper.

402. How
the Pari-
sians viewed
the flight of
the king
(June 20,
1791).

(From Prud-
homme’s
Revolutions
de Paris.)

It was not until ten o’clock in the morning that the muni-
cipal government announced, by firing a cannon thrice, the
unexpected event of the day. But for three hours the news
had already been passing from mouth to mouth and was
circulating in all quarters of the city. During these three
hours many outrages might have been committed. The king
had gone. This news produced a moment of anxiety, and
everybody ran in a crowd to the palace of the Tuileries to
see if it were true ; but every one turned almost immediately
428

The First French Republic 429

to the hall where the National Assembly met, declaring that
their king was in there and that Louis XVI might go where
he pleased.

Then the people became curious to visit the apartments
vacated by the royal family; they traversed them all, and
we questioned the sentinels we found there, “ Where, and
how, could he have escaped? How could this fat royal per-
son, who complained of the meanness of his lodging, manage
to make himself invisible to the sentries, — he whose girth
would stop up any passage? ” The soldiers of the guard had
nothing to say to this. We insisted : “ This flight is not
natural ; your commanders must have been in the plot, . . .
for while you were at your post Louis XVI left his with-
out your knowing it and yet passing close to you.” These
reflections, which naturally suggested themselves, account
for the reception which made Lafayette pale when he
appeared in the Place de Greve and passed along the quays.
He took refuge in the National Assembly, where he made
some confessions that did little to restore him to popu-
lar favor.

Far from being “famished for a glimpse of the king,” the
people proved, by the way in which they took the escape
of Louis XVI, that they were sick of the throne and tired
of paying for it. If they had known, moreover, that Louis
XVI, in his message, which was just then being read in the
National Assembly, complained “that he had not been able
to find in the palace of the Tuileries the most simple con-
veniences of life,” the people might have been roused to
some excess ; but they knew their own strength and did not
permit themselves any of those little exhibitions of ven-
geance which are natural to irritated weakness.

They contented themselves with making sport, in their
own way, of royalty and of the man who was invested with
it. The portrait of the king was taken down from its place
of honor and hung on the door. A fruit woman took pos-
session of Antoinette’s bed and used it to display her cher-
ries, saying, “ It ’s the nation’s turn now to be comfortable.”
A young girl refused to let them put the queen’s bonnet on

Conduct of
the populace
in the royal
apartments.

430 Readings in European History

her head and trampled on it with indignation and contempt.
They had more respect for the dauphin’s study, — but we
should blush to report the titles of the books which his
mother had selected.

The streets and public squares offered a spectacle of an-
other kind. The national force deployed itself everywhere
in an imposing manner. The brave Santerre alone enrolled
two thousand pikemen in his faubourg. These were not the
“ active ” citizens and the royal bluecoats, that were enjoy-
ing the honors of the celebration. The woolen caps reap-
peared and eclipsed the bearskins. The women contested
with the men the duty of guarding the city gates, saying,
“ It was the women who brought the king to Paris and the
men who let him escape.” But do not boast too loudly, ladies;
it was not much of a present, after all.

The prevailing spirit was apathy in regard to kings in
general and contempt for Louis XVI in particular. This
showed itself in the least details. On the Place de Greve
the people broke up a bust of Louis XVI, which was illu-
minated by that celebrated lantern which had been a source
of terror to the enemies of the Revolution. When will the
people execute justice upon all these bronze kings, monu-
ments of our idolatry ? In the Rue St. Honore they forced
a dealer to sacrifice a plaster head which somewhat resem-
bled Louis XVI. In another shop they contented them-
selves with putting a paper band over his eyes. The words
“king,” “queen,” “royal,” “Bourbon,” “Louis,” “court,”
“ Monsieur,” “ the king’s brother,” were effaced wherever
they were found on pictures or on the signs over shops
and stores.

While the National Assembly naturally tried to shield
the king after his unmistakable attempt to escape
beyond the boundaries of France, many leaders in
the clubs denounced him as a traitor and demanded
his deposition. A petition was drafted in which the
National Assembly was requested to regard the flight

The First French Republic

431

of Louis XVI as tantamount to his abdication. This was
submitted on July 17 to the crowds which collected on
the Champ de Mars in Paris. Some disorder having
arisen, the crowd treated the National Guard with dis-
respect, and the command was finally given to fire upon
the people. Lafayette, then head of the guard, and others
tried later to justify the harsh command, and were furi-
ously attacked by Marat in his famous newspaper. The
People' s Friend. The following extract from it furnishes
a good illustration of the attitude of the violent repub-
licans at this time.

O credulous Parisians ! can you be duped by these shame- 403. Marat
ful deceits and cowardly impostures ? See if their aim in attacks
massacring the patriots was not to annihilate your clubs !

Even while the massacre was going on, the emissaries of royalists.
Mother [i.e. Lafayette] were running about the streets mix-
ing with the groups of people and loudly accusing the fra-
ternal societies and the club of the Cordeliers of causing
the misfortunes. The same evening the club of the Corde-
liers, wishing to come together, found the doors of their
place of meeting nailed up. Two pieces of artillery barred
the entrance to the Fraternal Society, and only those con-
script fathers who were sold to the court were permitted to
enter the Jacobin Club, by means of their deputy’s cards.

Not satisfied with annihilating the patriotic associations,
these scoundrels violate the liberty of the press, annihilate
the Declaration of Rights — the rights of nature. Cowardly
citizens, can you hear this without trembling? They declare
the oppressed, who, in order to escape their tyranny, would
make a weapon of his despair and counsel the massacre of
his oppressors, a disturber of the public peace. They declare
every citizen a disturber of the public peace who cries, in an
uprising, to the ferocious satellites to lower or lay down their
arms, thus metamorphosing into crimes the very humanity of
peaceful citizens, the cries of terror and natural self-defense.

432

Readings m European History

404. The
Declaration
of Pillnitz
(August 27,
1791).

Infamous legislators, vile scoundrels, monsters satiated
with gold and blood, privileged brigands who traffic with the
monarch, with our fortunes, our rights, our liberty, and our
lives ! You thought to strike terror into the hearts of patri-
otic writers and paralyze them with fright at the sight of the
punishments you inflict. I flatter myself that they will not
soften. As for The Friend of the People, you know that for a
long time your decrees directed against the Declaration of
Rights have been waste paper to him. Could he but rally
at his call two thousand determined men to save the coun-
try, he would proceed at their head to tear out the heart of
the infernal Mottier in the midst of his battalions of slaves.
He would burn the monarch and his minions in his palace,
and impale you on your seats and bury you in the burning
ruins of your lair.

The flight of the king, his arrest at Varennes, and
the agitation which accompanied and followed the affair
led the queen’s brother, the Emperor Leopold, to issue,
in concert with the king of Prussia, the Declaration of
Pillnitz. This was regarded by the French as an expres-
sion of sympathy for the EmigrE and as a promise to
form a European alliance for the purpose of undoing the
Revolution in France. To those who signed the decla-
ration it was, however, scarcely more than an empty
threat, which they had little idea of carrying out.

His Majesty the Emperor and his Majesty the king of
Prussia, having given attention to the wishes and represen-
tations of Monsieur [the brother of the king of France], and
of Monsieur le Comte d’Artois, jointly declare that they
regard the present situation of his Majesty the king of
France as a matter of common interest to all the sovereigns
of Europe. They trust that this interest will not fail to be
recognized by the powers, whose aid is solicited ; and that
in consequence they will not refuse to employ, in conjunc-
tion with their said majesties, the most efficient means, in

The First French Republic

433

proportion to their resources, to place the king of France in
a position to establish, with the most absolute freedom, the
foundations of a monarchical form of government, which
shall at once be in harmony with the rights of sovereigns
and promote the welfare of the French nation. In that case^
their said majesties the emperor and the king of Prussia are
resolved to act promptly and in common accord with the
forces necessary to obtain the desired common end.

In the meantime they will give such orders to their troops
as are necessary in order that these may be ready to be
called into active service.

Leopold.

Frederick William.

PiLLNITZ, August 27, 1791.

II. A Royalist’s View of the Achievements of the
National Assembly

The views of the more conservative royalists in re-
gard to the work of the National Assembly are expressed
in the following editorial in the well-known periodical,
Le Mercure de France. This article was written by Mal-
let du Pan, the editor, who, although he clearly realized
the vices of the Ancien Regime and did not wish it
restored, nevertheless held, like many thoughtful men
of the time, that the Assembly had been very unwise
in its methods.

The Constitutional Assembly cannot fail, without denying
positive and accepted facts, to recognize that, as a result
of its doctrines and action, it leaves every religious principle
destroyed, morals in the last stage of degradation, free sway

1 Namely, in case the other powers agreed to join them in checking
the Revolution. The signers of the declaration well knew that England
would not associate itself with them for such a purpose and that conse-
quently their threat would not be executed.

405. Opinion
of a con-
servative
royalist on
the work of
the National
Assembly.

434

Readings in European History

to every vice, the rights of property violated and under-
mined, our forces, both land and naval, in a worse state
than at the opening of its reign ; that it has shaken, if not
destroyed, the foundation of all military organization ; that
it leaves our finances in chaos, the public debt considerably
augmented, the annual deficit, according to the most favor-
able calculators, increased by half, the taxes in arrears, their
payment suspended, having struck at their very roots by the
recklessness of an absolutely new system of which the imme-
diate effects have been to make the people regard themselves
as freed from taxation.

It cannot disguise from itself that our influence and repu-
tation in Europe are eclipsed ; that our commerce is less
flourishing, our industry less productive, our population
less numerous ; that our labor has decreased as well as the
national wealth ; that it has caused the disappearance of the
specie and dissipated an enormous amount of the public
capital ; that, finally, our internal police, in spite of numer-
ous guards, is more oppressive and less effective than it was
before the Revolution.

We will add, what no one can deny, that the number of
unfortunates of all classes has increased to a most frightful
extent ; that misery and despair cast a funeral pall over the
songs of triumph, the illuminations, the Te Deums and con-
gratulatory speeches. I do not speak of the clergy and
nobility ; their condition and birth having rendered them
criminal in the eyes of the dominant party, their misfortunes
are undoubtedly well-merited punishments, and four or five
hundred private individuals, having declared themselves
inviolable, have assumed the right to determine their fate
as the judge determines that of criminals ; but I ask that
a single class of Frenchmen, except the stockbrokers, be
pointed out to me whose fortunes have not diminished and
whose resources and prosperity have not been painfully
affected!

In order justly to appreciate the conduct of our first law-
makers, we must avoid the sophism by which they have con-
stantly fascinated the common people, — that of comparing

The First Fre?ich Reptiblic

435

the present situation of France with the disastrous results
of the most horrible despotism. That is a false standpoint to
which knaves and fools are always careful to revert. A vast
number of citizens do not desire the old any more than the
new regime, and the reproaches heaped upon the latter have
no bearing on the reform of the older system. In order to
overcome the disapprobation of the citizens it must be proved
that, without the action of the Assembly and the public and
private calamities which this has involved, France would
never have gained freedom, the security of person and prop-
erty, safety, which is the first condition of a good gov-
ernment, peace, which is its sign, political equality, plenty,
strength, order, and general consideration. It would, more-
over, have to be proved that the Assembly had not the power
to choose other institutions ; that no middle course presented
itself, and that the only government adapted to the existing
exigencies was that which the Assembly proclaimed, since no
other offered such obvious advantages or a more evidently
propitious future.

III. Origin of the Jacobin Club

The spontaneous origin of the Jacobin Club, which
was to play such a conspicuous role in the Revolution, is
here described by one of its prominent early members,
Alexandre de Lameth. The society grew with astonishing
rapidity. By December, 1790, there were eleven hundred
names enrolled upon the list of Paris members, and by
June, 1791, the affiliated clubs throughout the provinces
numbered four hundred and six. It must not be sup-
posed that the Jacobins represented a well-defined policy
or defended a single set of political opinions. Nor were
they by any means always in agreement among them-
selves. For example, in the winter of 1791- 1792 a
strong party among them opposed the growing tendency

406. How
the Jacobin
Club origi-
nated in
1789.

436 Readings in Eitropean History

to involve France in a war with Europe. Lameth makes
clear the way in which the society supplemented the
National Assembly.

After the transfer of the Assembly to Paris [October,
1789], the deputies from provinces which were distant from
the capital, and who, for the most part, had never visited
Paris (for traveling was not so easy then as it is now),
experienced a sort of terror at the idea of being alone and,
so to speak, lost in the midst of this huge city. They almost
all, consequently, endeavored to lodge as near as possible to
the Assembly, which then sat near the Feuillants (at the
point where the Rue de Rivoli and the Rue Castiglione now
intersect), in order that they might be easily found in case
of necessity. But they were desirous that there should also
be a place where they might meet to agree upon the direc-
tion of public matters. They applied to residents of the
capital in whom they had confidence ; a search was made in
the neighborhood of the Assembly, and the refectory of the
convent of the Jacobins was leased for two hundred francs
a year. The necessary furniture, which consisted of chairs
and tables for the committee, was procured for a like sum.

At the first session about one hundred deputies were
present, the next day double that number. The Baron de
Menou was elected president, and Target, Barnave, Alex-
andre de Lameth, Le Chapelier, and Adrien du Port were
elected secretaries, as well as three others whose names have
escaped me. A committee was chosen to draw up a list of
regulations, of which Barnave was the chairman. The soci-
ety decided on the name Friends of the Constitution. It was
determined that all members of the Assembly should be ad-
mitted, but only such other persons should be received as
had published useful works. The first to be thus received
were Condorcet, the Marquis de Casotte, a distinguished
economist, the Abbe Lecamus, a mathematician, and a small
number of other savants or publicists.

The aim of the Society of the Friends of the Constitution
was to discuss questions which were already, or were about to

The First French Republic

437

be placed, upon the calendar of the National Assembly. It
cannot be denied that, inasmuch as the non-deputies present
exercised no restraint upon these discussions, they often had
more force and brilliancy than in the Assembly itself, where
one found himself hindered by the violent contradictions of
the right wing, and often intimidated by a crowd of spectators.

This preliminary consideration shed a great deal of light
upon the discussions in the Assembly. The resolve to decide
within the society itself, by preliminary ballots, the nominees
for president, secretaries, and the committees of the Assem-
bly, proved a great advantage to the popular party; for from
that time the elections were almost always carried by the left,
although up to that time they had been almost entirely con-
trolled by the right. Camus, an ecclesiastical lawyer, then
president and since become a republican, had been elected
by the aristocracy.

The number of the deputies who customarily frequented
the Society of the Friends of the Constitution quickly rose to
nearly four hundred. The number of writers also increased
in a marked ratio. But it was not long before the condition
of having published a useful book was no longer required
for admission to the society, and it was decided that it was
sufficient to have been recommended by six members. The
organization then grew larger, and no longer possessed the
same solidity in its composition. Very soon the place of
meeting became insufficient, and permission was obtained
from the monks of the convent to meet in their library, and
later, in their church.

Along in December, 1789, many of the leading inhabitants
of the provinces, having come to Paris either on private busi-
ness or to follow more closely the course of public affairs,
had themselves introduced at the society and expressed a
desire to establish similar ones in the chief cities of France ;
for they felt that these associations of citizens intent upon
defending the cause of public interest would form an efficient
means of counteracting the violent opposition of the aristoc-
racy, a class which had not yet lost the power which it had
so long exercised.

438

Readings in European History

407. Letter
of Louis XVI
to the king
of Prussia
suggesting
foreign inter-
vention in
French
affairs.

IV. The Legislative Assembly and the Enemies of
THE Revolution

The early months of the Legislative Assembly were
mainly occupied with the policy to be pursued toward
three classes of opponents to the Revolution, — the run-
away nobles, the foreign powers, who seemed ready to
aid them, and, at home, the members of the clergy,
who refused to support the new constitution. The king
was also regarded with the greatest suspicion. Since
the flight to Varennes and the Declaration of Pillnitz it
seemed clear to both the Assembly and the people at
large that the king was in all probability relying upon
help from foreign powers. That they were quite right
in this assumption has since been proved by the discov-
ery of letters like the following which Louis was at the
time secretly dispatching to his fellow-monarchs.

My Brother: December 3, ,791.

I have learned through M. du Moustier of the interest
which your Majesty has expressed not only in my person
but also in the welfare of my kingdom. In giving me these
proofs, the attitude of your Majesty has, in all cases where
your interest might prove advantageous to my people, excited
my lively appreciation. I confidently take advantage of it
at this time when, in spite of the fact that I have accepted
the new constitution, seditious leaders are openly exhibit-
ing their purpose of entirely destroying the remnants of the
monarchy. I have just addressed myself to the emperor,
the empress of Russia, and to the kings of Spain and Swe-
den ; I am suggesting to them the idea of a congress of the
chief powers of Europe, supported by an armed force, as the
best means of checking seditious parties, of establishing a
more desirable order of things, and of preventing the evil
which afflicts us from reaching the other states of Europe.

The First Fre7ich Republic

439

I trust that your Majesty will approve my ideas, and that
you will maintain the most absolute secrecy about the propo-
sition I am making to you. You will easily understand that
the circumstances in which I find myself force me to ob-
serve the greatest caution. That is why no one but the
baron of Breteuil is informed of my plans, and your Majesty
may therefore communicate to him anything you wish. . . .

Your good brother,

Louis.

The king not unnaturally refused to sanction the
edicts which the Assembly directed against the emi-
grant nobles, but he wrote to his brothers expostulating
with them for increasing his unpopularity by their im-
politic language and their intrigues with foreign powers.

On October 31, on motion of the Girondist, Isnard,
the Assembly bluntly ordered the king’s older brother,
the count of Provence, to return to France on pain of
losing all rights to the regency.

Louis Stanislas Xavier, Prince of France :

The National Assembly requires you in virtue of the
French constitution, title III, chapter ii, section 3, article 2,
to return to the kingdom within a period of two months from
to-day, failing which you will, after the expiration of the
said period, lose your contingent right to the regency.

On December 6 the count published the above order
in Coblenz (the Emigres' center of activity), with the
following counter-proclamation of his own.

408. The
count of
Provence
summoned
back to
France; and
his impudent
reply to the
Assembly.

Members of the French Assembly, calling itself National:
Sanity requires you, in virtue of title I, chapter i, section
I, article i, of the imprescriptible laws of common sense, to
return to yourselves within a period of two months from
to-day, failing which you will, after the expiration of the
said period, be regarded as having lost your right to be

440

Readings in European History

409. The
French
Assembly
declares war
on Austria.

Reasons
for war.

considered reasonable beings, and will be regarded as mad-
men, fit for the insane asylum.

Since the opening of the Legislative Assembly most
of the Girondists had been warmly advocating war,
which they believed would force the king to take a
definite stand either with or against the nation. When
war was finally declared against Austria on April 20,
the Assembly was able to assign a number of plausible
reasons for their action.

The National Assembly, deliberating upon the formal
proposition of the king, in view of the fact that the court
of Vienna, in contempt of treaties, has not ceased to extend
open protection to French rebels ;

That it has instigated and formed a concert with several
of the powers of Europe directed against the independence
and safety of the French nation ;

That Francis I, king of Hungary and Bohemia, has, by
his diplomatic notes of the i8th of March and the 7th of
April last, refused to renounce this concert ;

That, in spite of the proposition made to him by the note
of March ii, 1792, to reduce to a peace basis the troops
upon the frontiers, he has continued, and hastened, hostile
preparations ;

That he has formally attacked the sovereignty of the
French nation by declaring his intention of maintaining the
claims of the German princes who hold territory in France,
whom the French nation has repeatedly offered to indemnify ;

That he has endeavored to divide the citizens of France
and arm them against one another by holding out to the
malcontents the hope of assistance from a concert of the
powers ;

And that, finally, by his refusal to reply to the last dis-
patches of the king of France, he leaves no hope of obtain-
ing, by way of friendly negotiation, the redress of these
several grievances, — which is equivalent to a declaration of
war ; — the Assembly decrees that immediate action is urgent.

The First FrencJi Republic

441

The National Assembly proclaims that the French nation,
faithful to the principles consecrated by its constitution,
“not to undertake any war with a view to conquest nor
ever to employ its forces against the liberty of any people,”
only takes up arms for the maintenance of its liberty and
independence ;

That the war which it is forced to prosecute is not a war
of nation against nation, but the just defense of a free people
against the unjust aggression of a king;

That the French nation never confuses its brethren with
its real enemies ;

That it will neglect nothing which may reduce the curse
of war, spare and preserve property, and cause all the un-
happiness inseparable from war to fall alone upon those who
have conspired against its liberty ;

That it adopts in advance all foreigners who, abjuring
the cause of its enemies, shall range themselves under its
banners and consecrate their efforts to the defense of
liberty; and that it will promote by all means in its power
their settling in France.

Deliberating upon the formal proposition of the king and
after having decreed the matter one of urgent importance,
the Assembly decrees war against the king of Hungary and
of Bohemia.

The victories of the Austrians which followed the
declaration of war called forth harsh measures against
enemies at home, namely, such of the clergy as had been
roused to opposition by the radical ecclesiastical reforms
of the Assembly. The decree of May 27, 1 792, ordered
the expulsion from the realm of those clergymen who
refused to take the oath to the constitution. The king
increased his unpopularity by refusing to sanction this
measure of the Assembly.

. . . The National Assembly, considering that the efforts
which the nonjuring clergymen are constantly making to

Firm pur-
pose of the
French to
make no
conquests.

410. Decree
against the
nonjuring
clergy.

Definition of

nonjuring

clergymen.

442 Readings m Europea?i History

overthrow the constitution preclude the supposition that
these said ecclesiastics desire to unite in the social compact ;
considering that it would compromise the public safety longer
to regard as members of society men who are evidently
seeking to dissolve it ; and in view of the fact that the laws
are without force against men such as these who, operating
upon the conscience in order to seduce the people, nearly
always conceal their criminal maneuvers from those who
might repress and punish them, decrees as follows :

1. The deportation of nonjuring ecclesiastics shall take
place as a measure of public security and of the general
police power, in the cases and according to the forms here-
inafter set forth.

2. All those shall be considered as nonjuring ecclesiastics
who, being subject to the oath prescribed by the law of
December 26, 1790, shall not have taken it; those also, not
included in the said law, who have not taken the civic oath
since September 3, last, the day when the French constitu-
tion was declared completed ; finally, those who shall have
retracted either oath.

3. When twenty active citizens of the same canton shall
unite in a demand for the deportation of a nonjuring eccle-
siastic, the directory of the department shall be required
to pronounce the deportation if the opinion of the district
directory is in conformity with the petition. . . .

15. When an ecclesiastic against whom deportation has
been pronounced is enjoying no pension or revenue, he shall
receive three livres for each day’s journey of ten leagues,
as far as the frontiers, in order to support him on the way.
These charges shall be borne by the public treasury and
advanced by the treasury of the district in which the said
ecclesiastic resides.

16. Those ecclesiastics against whom deportation has
been pronounced who shall remain in the kingdom after
announcing their retirement, or who shall return again after
crossing the boundary, shall be condemned to imprisonment
for ten years.

The First Fretich Republic

443

V. The Abolition of Monarchy

The demands for the suspension of Louis XVI, who
was generally believed to be in traitorous correspondence
with the Austrians and Prussians, became numerous in
the summer of 1792 ; but it remained for the duke of
Brunswick to assure the downfall of the monarchy by
his proclamation, which became known in Paris, July 28,
and seemed to furnish the agitators with a complete
justification for the revolt which they were already plan-
ning and which they carried out on August 10.

Their Majesties the emperor and the king of Prussia
having intrusted to me the command of the united armies
which they have collected on the frontiers of France, I
desire to announce to the inhabitants of that kingdom the
motives which have determined the policy of the two sov-
ereigns and the purposes which they have in view.

After arbitrarily violating the rights of the German princes
in Alsace and Lorraine, disturbing and overthrowing good
order and legitimate government in the interior of the
realm, committing against the sacred person of the king
and his august family outrages and brutalities which con-
tinue to be renewed daily, those who have usurped the reins
of government have at last completed their work by declar-
ing an unjust war on his Majesty the emperor and attacking
his provinces situated in the Low Countries, Some of the
territories of the Germanic empire have been affected by
this oppression, and others have only escaped the same
fate by yielding to the threats of the dominant party and its
emissaries.

His Majesty the king of Prussia, united with his Imperial
Majesty by the bonds of a strict defensive alliance and him-
self a preponderant member of the Germanic body, would
have felt it inexcusable to refuse to march to the help of his
ally and fellow-member of the empire. . . .

411. The
proclama-
tion of the
duke of
Brunswick

(July 25,

1792).

Accusations
against those
who have
“ usurped ”
the power in
France.

444

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Aims of
the allies.

The allied
courts medi-
tate no
conquests.

They purpose
to free the
French king.

Forgiveness
for those who
cooperate
with the
allies.

Threats
against those
who oppose
the invaders.

To these important interests should be added another
aim equally important and very close to the hearts of the
two sovereigns, — namely, to put an end to the anarchy in
the interior of France, to check the attacks upon the throne
and the altar, to reestablish the legal power, to restore to
the king the security and the liberty of which he is now
deprived and to place him in a position to exercise once
more the legitimate authority which belongs to him.

Convinced that the sane portion of the French nation
abhors the excesses of the faction which dominates it, and
that the majority of the people look forward with impatience
to the time when they may declare themselves openly against
the odious enterprises of their oppressors, his Majesty the
emperor and his Majesty the king of Prussia call upon them
and invite them to return without delay to the path of rea-
son, justice, order, and peace. In accordance with these
views, I, the undersigned, the commander in chief of the
two armies, declare :

1. That, drawn into this war by irresistible circumstances,
the two allied courts entertain no other aims than the wel-
fare of France, and have no intention of enriching them-
selves by conquests.

2. That they do not propose to meddle in the internal
government of France, and that they merely wish to deliver
the king, the queen, and the royal family from their captiv-
ity, and procure for his Most Christian Majesty the neces-
sary security to enable him, without danger or hindrance, to
make such engagements as he shall see fit, and to work for
the welfare of his subjects, according to his pledges.

3. That the allied armies will protect the towns and vil-
lages, and the persons and goods of those who shall submit
to the king and who shall cooperate in the immediate rees-
tablishment of order and the police power throughout France.

4. . . . That, on the contrary, the members of the Na-
tional Guard who shall fight against the troops of the two
allied courts, and who shall be taken with arms in their
hands, shall be treated as enemies and punished as rebels
to their king and as disturbers of the public peace. . . .

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44S

7. That the inhabitants of the towns and villages who
may dare to defend themselves against the troops of their
Imperial and Royal Majesties and fire on them, either in
the open country or through windows, doors, and openings
in their houses, shall be punished immediately according
to the most stringent laws of war, and their houses shall be
burned or destroyed. . . .

8. The city of Paris and all its inhabitants without dis-
tinction shall be required to submit at once and without
delay to the king, to place that prince in full and complete
liberty, and to assure to him, as well as to the other royal per-
sonages, the inviolability and respect which the law of nature
and of nations demands of subjects toward sovereigns. , . .
Their said Majesties declare, on their word of honor as
emperor and king, that if the chateau of the Tuileries is
entered by force or attacked, if the least violence be offered
to their Majesties the king, queen, and royal family, and if
their safety and their liberty be not immediately assured,
they will inflict an ever memorable vengeance by delivering
over the city of Paris to military execution and complete
destruction, and the rebels guilty of the said outrages to the
punishment that they merit. . . .

Finally, I pledge myself, in my own name and in my said
capacity, to cause the troops intrusted to my command to
observe good and strict discipline, promising to treat with
kindness and moderation all well-intentioned subjects who
show themselves peaceful and submissive, and to use force
only against those who shall be guilty of resistance and
ill will.

It is for these reasons that I call upon and exhort in the
most urgent manner all the inhabitants of the kingdom not
to oppose the movements and operations of the troops which
I command, but rather, on the contrary, to grant them every-
where a free passage and to assist and aid them with all
good will as circumstances shall demand.

Given at the headquarters at Coblenz, July 25, 1792.

Charles William Ferdinand,

Duke of Brunswick-Liineburg.

Fate of Paris
if it permits
the king to
come to
harm.

446

Readings in Em'opean History

Louis XVI had been suspended August lo on account
of the misgivings which his conduct inspired. The de-
bate carried on six weeks later, during the opening
session of the Convention, September 21, 1792, well
illustrates the attitude of the new Assembly toward
the ancient monarchy and serves to introduce some of
the men who were soon to be most active during the
Reign of Terror.

412. The
debate
during the
first session
of the
Convention.

The citizens chosen by the French people to form the
National Convention having assembled to the number of
three hundred and seventy one, and having examined the
credentials of the members, declare that the National Con-
vention is organized. . . .

M. Manuel. Representatives of the sovereign people : the
task which devolves upon you demands the power and wis-
dom of gods themselves. When Cineas entered the Roman
senate he thought he beheld an assembly of kings. Such
a comparison would be an insult to you. Here we see an
assembly of philosophers occupied in preparing the way for
the happiness of the world. I move that the president of
France have his residence in the national palace, that the
symbols of law and power be always at his side, and that
every time that he opens a session all the citizens shall rise.
This act of homage to the sovereignty of the people will con-
stantly recall to us our rights and duties.

M. Simon. I move that the Assembly declare that they
will never deliberate except in the presence of the people.

The President. Your motion, having no relation to the
previous motion, I cannot give the floor to those who wish
to support or oppose your proposition until the Assembly
has passed upon the motion of Monsieur Manuel.

M. Mathieu. I am doubtful whether the discussion sug-
gested by Monsieur Manuel should take precedence in our
deliberations. Our predecessors lost much time in determin-
ing the exact dimensions of the chair of the former king.
We do not wish to commit the same error. . . .

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447

M. Chabot. Representatives of the people : I oppose the
motion made by Citizen Manuel, I am astonished that
Citizen Manuel, after having repudiated every idea of any
comparison with kings, should propose to make one of our
members like a king. The French nation, by sending to the
Convention two hundred members of the legislative body
who have individually taken an oath to combat both kings
and royalty, has made itself quite clear as to its desire to
establish a popular government. It is not only the na7ne of
king that it would abolish but everything which suggests
preeminence, so that there will be no president of France.
You cannot look for any other kind of dignity than associ-
ating with the sans-culottes who compose the majority of the
nation. Only by making yourselves like your fellow-citizens
will you acquire the necessary dignity to cause your decrees
to be respected. . . .

M. Tallien. I am much astonished to hear this discussion
about ceremonials. . . . Outside of this hall the president
of the Convention is a simple citizen. If you want to speak
to him, you can go and look for him on the third or the
fifth floor. There is where virtue has its lodging. . . .

The Assembly unanimously rejected the motion of Mon-
sieur Manuel.

M. Tallien. I move that before everything else the Assem-
bly take a solemn pledge not to separate till it has given the
French people a government established on the foundations
of liberty and equality. I move that the members take an
oath to make no laws which depart from this standard, and
that this oath shall constantly guide the representatives of
the people in their work. Those who shall perjure them-
selves shall be immolated to the just vengeance of the
people. . . , \^Applausel\

M. Merlm. I move that we do not take any oaths. Let
us promise the people to save them. Let us go to work.

M. Couthon. ... I am not afraid that, in the discussion
which is about to take place, any one will dare to speak of
royalty again ; it is fit only for slaves, and the French would
be unworthy of the liberty which they have acquired should

44^ Readings in European History

they dream of retaining a form of government branded by
fourteen centuries of crime. But it is not royalty alone that
must be eliminated from our constitution, but every kind of
individual power which tends to restrict the rights of the
people and violate the principles of equality. . . .

M. Philippeaux. There is a still more pressing subject ;
that is, to furnish the organs of the law the necessary power
to maintain public tranquillity. I move that you maintain
provisionally in power all the authorities now in existence. . . .

M. Camus. The most essential thing is to order that the
taxes continue to be collected, for you know that they have
to be voted at the opening of every new legislature.

The motions of Messieurs Philippeaux and Camus were
unanimously passed. . . .

M. Collot d'Herbois. You have just taken a wise resolu-
tion, but there is one which you cannot postpone until the
morrow, or even until this evening, or indeed for a single
instant, without being faithless to the wish of the nation, —
that is the abolition of royalty. [ Una7ihnous applause.~\

M. Qiiinette. We are not the judges of royalty ; that be-
longs to the people. Our business is to make a concrete
government, and the people will then choose between the
old form where there was royalty and that which we shall
submit to them. . . .

M. Gregoire. Assuredly no one of us would ever propose
to retain in France the fatal race of kings ; we all know but
too well that dynasties have never been anything else than
rapacious tribes who lived on nothing but human flesh. It
is necessary completely to reassure the friends of liberty.
We must destroy this talisman, whose magic power is still
sufficient to stupefy many a man. I move accordingly that
you sanction by a solemn law the abolition of royalty.

The entire Assembly rose by a spontaneous movement and
passed the motion of Monsieur Gregoire by acclamation.

M. Bazire. I rise to a point of order. ... It would be a
frightful example for the people to see an Assembly com-
missioned with its dearest interests voting in a moment of
enthusiasm. I move that the question be discussed.

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449

M. Grkgoire. Surely it is quite unnecessary to discuss
what everybody agrees on. Kings are in the moral order
what monsters are in the physical. Courts are the workshops
of crimes, the lair of tyrants. The history of kings is the
martyrology of nations. Since we are all convinced of the
truth of this, why discuss it? I demand that my motion be
put to vote, and that later it be supplied with a formal justi-
fication worthy of the solemnity of the decree.

M. Diicos. The form of your decree would be only the
history of the crimes of Louis XVI, a history already but
too well known to the French people. I demand that it be
drawn up in the simplest terms. There is no need of expla-
nation after the knowledge which has been spread abroad
by the events of August lo.

The discussion was closed. There was a profound silence.
The motion of Monsieur Gregoire, put to vote, was adopted
amidst the liveliest applause :

“The National Convention decrees that royalty is abol-
ished in France.”

The Convention, after ridding France of the institu-
tion of monarchy, proposed to make its armies a means
of propagating liberty and reform throughout Europe.
It accordingly prepared a proclamation to be published
in those countries which already were, or should be, occu-
pied by the armies of the new French republic.

The French people to the people of ; brothers and friends :

We have conquered our liberty and we shall maintain it.
We offer to bring this inestimable blessing to you, for it
has always been rightly ours, and only by a crime have our
oppressors robbed us of it. We have driven out your tyrants.
Show yourselves free men and we will protect you from their
vengeance, their machinations, or their return.

From this moment the French nation proclaims the sov-
ereignty of the people, the suppression of all civil and mili-
tary authorities which have hitherto governed you and of all
the taxes which you bear, under whatever form, the abolition

413. Procla-
mation to
nations
whose
tyrants
have been
driven out
by the
French
republican
armies (De-
cember 15,
1792).

450

Readings in European History

414. The
count of
Provence
announces
the death of
Louis XVI
to the
Emigres.

of the tithe, of feudalism, of seigniorial rights and monopo-
lies of every kind, of serfdom, whether real or personal, of
hunting and fishing privileges, of the corvee., the salt tax, the
tolls and local imposts, and, in general, of all the various
kinds of taxes with which you have been loaded by your
usurpers ; it also proclaims the abolition among you of all
noble and ecclesiastical corporations and of all prerogatives
and privileges opposed to equality. You are, from this
moment, brothers and friends ; all are citizens, equal in
rights, and all are alike called to govern, to serve, and to
defend your country.^

Upon the execution of Louis XVI, his brother, the
count of Provence, formally announced to his fellow-
ErnigrE the tragedy which their conduct had done so
much to consummate.

Gmtkmen ; Westphalia, January 28, 1793-

It is with sentiments of the deepest grief that I impart
to you the new loss which we have just experienced in the
king, my brother, whom the tyrants who for so long a time
have been desolating France have sacrificed to their sacri-
legious rage. This horrible event brings with it new duties
for me which I propose to fulfill. I have taken the title of
regent of the kingdom, which the right of birth gives me
during the minority of King Louis XVII, my nephew, and
I have delegated to the count of Artois that of lieutenant
general of the kingdom.

Your sentiments are too well proved by your constancy
and the numerous sacrifices that you have made, in your

* In the decree of the Convention to which the above proclamation
was appended, we find (Article ii) ;

The French nation declares that it will treat as enemies every people who,
refusing liberty and equality or renouncing them, may wish to maintain, recall,
or treat with the prince and the privileged classes ; on the other hand, it engages
not to subscribe to any treaty and not to lay down its arms until the sovereignty
and independence of the people whose territory the troops of the republic shall
have entered shall be established, and until the people shall have adopted the
principles of equality and founded a free and democratic government.

The First French Republic

451

attachment to the religion of your fathers and to the sover-
eign whom we mourn to-day, to make it necessary to exhort
you to redouble your zeal and fidelity toward our young and
unfortunate monarch and your ardor in avenging the blood
of his august father. We cannot fail to enjoy the support of
the sovereigns who have already so generously embraced our
cause ; and if it is possible for us to find any consolation,
it lies in the opportunity offered us to avenge our king, to
place his son upon the throne, and to restore to our coun-
try that ancient constitution which can alone serve as a
basis for its happiness and glory. This is the sole object of
my solicitude and of that of my brother. Our titles have
been changed, but our union is and will always remain the
same, and we shall endeavor with more ardor than ever to
fulfill our duty towards God, our honor, the king, and you.

Louis Stanislas Xavier.

VI. The Ideals of the Terrorists

Among the terrorists none was more ardent and in-
defatigable than Saint-Just, a young fanatic of unim-
peachable probity, who, as member of the Committee
of Public Safety and as agent of the Convention in the
provinces, urged on the war against all the enemies of
the Revolution, whether within or without France. He
was a firm friend and admirer of Robespierre and suf-
fered death with him on the loth Thermidor (July 28,
1794). He left behind him some unpublished notes on
republican institutions written during his last months,
when he foresaw that, among so many opponents of
his exalted ideas, he was likely to lose his life. The
few selections which are given below serve to show
how Saint-Just, Robespierre, and their sympathizers pro-
posed to elaborate and to carry out, at the cost of no

452

Readings in European History

415. Selec-
tions from
the Republican
Institutions of
Saint-Just.

matter how much bloodshed, the ideas of Rousseau,
whose ardent disciples they were.

I challenge you to establish liberty so long as it remains
possible to arouse the unfortunate classes against the new
order of things, and I defy you to do away with poverty
altogether unless each one has his own land. . . . Where
you find large landowners you find many poor people.
Nothing can be done in a country where agriculture is car-
ried on on a large scale. Man was not made for the work-
shop, the hospital, or the poorhouse. All that is horrible.
Men must live in independence, each with his own wife
and his robust and healthy children. We must have neither
rich nor poor.

The poor man is superior to government and the powers
of the world ; he should address them as a master. We
must have a system which puts all these principles in prac-
tice and assures comfort to the entire people. Opulence is
a crime : it consists in supporting fewer children, whether
one’s own or adopted, than one has thousands of francs of
income. . . .

Children shall belong to their mother, provided she has
suckled them herself, until they are five years old ; after
that they shall belong to the republic until death. The
mother who does not suckle her children ceases to be a
mother in the eyes of the country. Child and citizen belong
to the country, and a common instruction is essential. Chil-
dren shall be brought up in the love of silence and scorn
for fine talkers. They shall be trained in laconic speech.
Games shall be prohibited in which they declaim, and they
shall be habituated to simple truth.

The boys shall be educated, from the age of five to six-
teen, by the country ; from five to ten they shall learn to
read, write, and swim. No one shall strike or caress a child.
They shall be taught what is good and left to nature. He
who strikes a child shall be banished. The children shall
eat together and shall live on roots, fruit, vegetables, milk,
cheese, bread, and water. The teachers of children from

The First French Republic

453

five to ten years old shall not be less than sixty years of
age. . . . The education of children from ten to sixteen
shall be military and agricultural.

Every man t^venty-one years of age shall publicly state in
the temples who are his friends. This declaration shall be
renewed each year during the month Ventose. If a man
deserts his friend, he is bound to explain his motives before
the people in the temples; if he refuses, he shall be ban-
ished. Friends shall not put their contracts into writing,
nor shall they oppose one another at law. If a man com-
mits a crime, his friends shall be banished. Friends shall
dig the grave of a deceased friend and prepare for the obse-
quies, and with the children of the deceased they shall scat-
ter flowers on the grave. He who says that he does not
believe in friendship, or who has no friends, shall be ban-
ished. A man convicted of ingratitude shall be banished.

The French people recognize the existence of the Su-
preme Being and the immortality of the soul. The first day
of every month is consecrated to the Eternal. Incense shall
burn day and night in the temples and shall be tended in
turn for twenty-four hours by the men who have reached
the age of sixty. The temples shall never be closed. The
French people devote their fortunes and their children to the
Eternal. The immortal souls of all those who have died for
the fatherland, who have been good citizens, who have cher-
ished their father and mother and never abandoned them,
are in the bosom of the Eternal.

The first day of the month Germinal the republic shall
celebrate the festival of the Divinity, of Nature, and of the
People ; the first day of the month Floreal, the festival of
the Divinity, of love, and of husband and wife, etc.^

1 Robespierre, in a remarkable report made to the Convention, May
7, 1794, on the relations of religious ideas to republican principles, ex-
hibits the same confidence in festivals. Among the sentiments which
he would celebrate are liberty, equality, glory, immortality, frugality,
disinterestedness, stoicism, old age, and misfortune {Histoire Parle-
mentaire, Vol. XXXII, pp. 353^77.). See also another similar report
submitted on February 5, 1794 i^Histoire Parlemeniaire, Vol. XXXI,

454

Readings in European History

Every year on the first day of Floreal the people of each
commune shall select, from among the inhabitants of the
commune, and in the temple, a young man rich and virtu-
ous and without deformity, at least twenty-one years of age
and not over thirty, who shall in turn select and marry a
poor maiden, in everlasting memory of human equality.

VII. Camille Desmoulins and his Newspaper

The most amiable and humorous of the terrorists
was Camille Desmoulins. While he was one of the very
first to preach republican ideas and to propagate them
through his writings, he had little of the relentless and
stern fanaticism which blinded Robespierre and Saint-
Just to the cruelty of the work in which they were
engaged. In the autumn of 1793 Desmoulins, who was
a journalist by profession, began to issue a new news-
paper, which he called The Old Cordelier} The charm
of his style, his wit and learning assured his editorials
— and his newspaper was really nothing more than a
periodical editorial — great popularity in Paris, and they
still delight the historical student. In the third issue
(December 1 5, 1793) he seeks to extenuate the severities
of the Reign of Terror by showing, by skillfully adapted
quotations from Tacitus, that the harsh measures of the
new French republic were as nothing compared with
the atrocities by which the early Roman emperors estab-
lished their sway.

pp. 268 sqq}^. Compare in this connection an address of Billaud-Varen-
nes on the theory of democratic government {Histoire Parlementaire,
Vol. XXXII, pp. 335 and Fabre d’Eglantine’s report on the new
calendar (^Histoire Parlementaire, Vol. XXXI, pp. 415 sqq.).

1 Desmoulins had been from the first a very active member of the
club of the Cordeliers, which had been more radical and republican in
sentiment than the Jacobins.

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455

One difference between monarchy and a republic, which
would alone serve to make every right-hearted man reject mon-
archy.with horror and give preference to a republic, whatever
it may cost to establish it, is that although the people may,
in a democracy, be misled, they always esteem virtue and try
to place only the upright in office, while rogues constitute
the very essence of monarchy. Vice, pillage, and crime are
diseases in republics, but health itself is a disease in mon-
archies. Cardinal Richelieu admits this in his Political Testa-
ment^ where he makes it a principle that the king should
avoid employing upright men. And before him Sallust said,
“ Kings cannot do without scoundrels and, on the contrary,
they must be on their guard against probity.” Only in a
republic, then, can the good citizen ever hope to see an end
to the supremacy of intrigue and crime, for in order that
these may disappear it is only necessary that the people
should be enlightened. . . .

And there is another difference between monarchy and
a republic : the reigns of the worst of emperors — Tibe-
rius, Claudius, Nero, Caligula, Domitian — all had happy
beginnings.

It is by reflections such as these that the patriot should
first answer the royalist who is laughing in his sleeve over
the present state of France, as if this violent and terrible
condition was to last. I can hear you, my dear royalists,
slyly making sport of the founders of the republic and com-
paring the present with the old days of the Bastile. You
count on the frankness of my pen, and you think that you
will follow with pleasure my faithful account of the past half
year. But I know how to moderate your satisfaction, and at
the same time animate the citizens to new courage. Before
summoning my readers to the Place de la Re'volution and
showing it to them flooded with the blood that has flowed
during the past six months for the eternal emancipation of
a nation of twenty-five millions and not yet cleansed by
liberty and the public welfare, I will begin by fixing the eyes

416. Camille
Desmoulins
seeks to
extenuate
the Reign of
Terror by
quotations
from
Tacitus.

1 See above, pp. 268 sqq.

456 Readings in Europea^i History

of my fellow-citizens upon the reigns of the Caesars, — upon
that river of blood, that sewer of corruption and filth, which
flows perpetually under a monarchy.

For a long time, Tacitus tells us, there had been at
Rome a law which defined the crimes of state and of leze
majesty which were to be punished with death. . . . The
emperors had only to add a few articles to this law in order
to involve both individual citizens and entire cities in a fatal
proscription. Augustus was the first to extend this law of
leze majesty in which he included the writings which he
called counter-revolutionary. Under his successors the com-
prehensiveness of the law soon knew no bounds. When
simple remarks had become crimes of state, it was only a
step to view as criminal mere glances, sadness, compassion,
sighs, — silence itself.

Soon it became a crime of leze majesty, or of counter-
revolution, for the town of Nursia to raise a monument to
those of its people who had fallen at the siege of Modena,
fighting under Augustus himself — Augustus was at that
time in alliance with Brutus, and so Nursia suffered the fate
of Perugia; a crime of counter-revolution for Libo Drusus
to have asked the soothsayers if he would not one day be
very rich ; a crime of counter-revolution for the journalist,
Cremutius Cordus, to have called Brutus and Cassius the
last of the Romans ; a crime of counter-revolution for one of
the descendants of Cassius to possess a portrait of his great-
grandfather ; a crime of counter-revolution for Mamercus
Scaurus to have composed a tragedy in which was a line
that might have two meanings ; a crime of counter-revolution
for Torquatus Silanus to spend his money; a crime of coun-
ter-revolution to complain of the disasters of the time, for
this was to criticise the government. . . .

Everything offended the tyrant. Was a citizen popular?
He was a rival of the prince, who might stir up civil war.
Studia civium in se verteret et si midti idem audeant^ helium esse.
Suspect. Did a citizen, on the contrary, avoid popularity and
hug his own fireside? This retired life caused you to gain a
certain respect. Quanto tnetu occulHor.^ tanto famae adeptus.

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457

Suspect. Were you rich ? There was danger that the popu-
lace might be corrupted by your largesses. Auri vwi atque
opes Plaiiti prmcipi infetisas. Suspect. Were you poor?
Ha, invincible emperor ! that man must be closely watched.
No one is so enterprising as he who has nothing. Syllam
inopem, icnde praecipua7?i audaciam. Suspect.

Were you of a somber and melancholy temperament, or
careless in your dress ? You were disgusted that public
affairs were going so well. Suspect. If, on the other hand,
a citizen indulged himself in good times and indigestion, he
was but rejoicing that the emperor had had an attack of
gout, which was really nothing. It was necessary to let that
man know that the emperor was still in the prime of life.
Reddendmn pro intempestiva licentia moestam et funebreni noc-
tem qua sentiat vivere Vitellium et imperare. Suspect. Was
he virtuous and austere in his habits ? Good ! a new Brutus,
who durst, by his pallid face and Jacobin peruke, to censure
the curled and giddy courtier. Suspect.^

Now the royalists need not take the trouble to inform me
that this description settles nothing, and that the reign of
Louis XVI resembled in no way the sway of the Caesars.
If it did not resemble it, it is because with us despotism has
long been lulled in the lap of its luxuries and has placed
such confidence in the strength of the chains which our
fathers have borne for fifteen centuries that it deemed ter-
ror no longer necessary. . . . But now that the people have
awakened and the sword of the republic has been drawn, let
royalty once more set foot in France, and then we shall see
that these pictures of tyranny so well drawn by Tacitus will
prove the living image of what we shall have to suffer for
half a century.

Indeed, need we seek examples at such a distance ? The
massacres of the Champ de Mars ^ and at Nancy; the hor-
rors committed by the Austrians on the frontiers, which

^ As Michelet has pointed out, this is rather a satire upon than a
justification of the Reign of Terror.

2 See above, pp. 430 sq.

458

Readings in European History

Robespierre recounted to us the other night at the Jacobin
Club ; the conduct of the English at Genoa, of the royalists
at Fougeres and in the Vendee, — the violence of the fac-
tions alone shows well enough that despotism, if allowed to
reenter its demolished habitation in a passion, could only
establish itself again by reigning as did Augustus and Nero.
In this duel between liberty and slavery and in the cruel
alternative of a defeat a thousand times more bloody than
our victory, it is wiser and less hazardous to carry the Revo-
lution too far than to stop short of the goal, as Danton has
said ; it has been essential, above everything else, that the
republic should remain in possession of the field of battle.

417. Ca-
mille Des-
moulins
makes a
plea for
clemency
(December
20, 1793).

In the succeeding number of his newspaper (issued
Decadi, 30th Frimaire, second year of the republic, one
and indivisible) Desmoulins no longer extenuates the
work of the guillotine but pleads for clemency.

Some persons have expressed their disapproval of my
third issue, where, as they allege, I have been pleased to
suggest certain comparisons which tend to cast an unfavor-
able light on the Revolution and the patriots, — they should
say the excess of revolution and the professional patriots.
My critics think the whole number refuted and everybody
justified by the single reflection, “We all know that the pres-
ent situation is not one of freedom, — but patience ! you will
be free one of these days.”

Such people think apparently that liberty, like infancy,
must of necessity pass through a stage of wailing and tears
before it reaches maturity. On the contrary, it is of the
nature of liberty that, in order to enjoy it, we need only
desire it. A people is free the moment that it wishes to
be so, — you will recollect that this was one of Lafayette’s
sayings, — and the people has entered upon its full rights
since the 14th of July. Liberty has neither infancy nor old
age, but is always in the prime of strength and vigor. . . .

Is this liberty that we desire a mere empty name ? Is it
only an opera actress carried about with a red cap on, or

The First Freiich Republic

459

even that statue, forty-six feet high, which David proposes
to make ? If by liberty you do not understand, as I do,
great principles, but only a bit of stone, there never was
idolatry more stupid and expensive than ours. Oh, my dear
fellow-citizens, have we sunk so low as to prostrate ourselves
before such divinities ? No, heaven-born liberty is no nymph
of the opera, nor a red liberty cap, nor a dirty shirt and rags.
Liberty is happiness, reason, equality, justice, the Declara-
tion of Rights, your sublime constitution.

Would you have me recognize this liberty, have me fall at
her feet, and shed all my blood for her? Then open the
prison doors to the two hundred thousand citizens whom
you call suspects, for in the Declaration of Rights no prisons
for suspicion are provided for, only places of detention.
Suspicion has no prison, but only the public accuser ; there
are no suspects, but only those accused of offenses estab-
lished by law.

Do not think that such a measure would be fatal to the
republic. It would, on the contrary, be the most revolution-
ary that you have adopted. You would exterminate all your
enemies by the guillotine ! But was there ever greater mad-
ness ? Can you possibly destroy one enemy on the scaffold
without making ten others among his family and friends ?
Do you believe that those whom you have imprisoned —
these women and old men, these self-indulgent valetudina-
rians, these stragglers of the Revolution — are really dan-
gerous ? Only those among your enemies have remained
among you who are cowardly or sick. The strong and
courageous have emigrated. They have perished at Lyons or
in the Vendee. The remnant which still lingers does not
deserve your anger. . . .

Moreover it has not been love of the republic, but curi-
osity, which has every day attracted multitudes to the Place
de la Revolution ; it was the new drama which was to be
enacted but once. I am sure that the majority of those who
frequented this spectacle felt a deep contempt in their hearts
for those who subscribed for the theater or opera, where
they could only see pasteboard daggers and comedians who

460 Readings in European History

merely pretended to die. According to Tacitus, a similar
insensibility prevailed in Rome, a similar feeling of security
and indifference to all issues. . . .

I am of a very different opinion from those who claim
that it is necessary to leave the Terror on the order of the
day. I am confident, on the contrary, that liberty will be
assured and Europe conquered so soon as you have a com-
mittee of clemency. This committee will complete the Rev-
olution, for clemency itself is a revolutionary measure, the
most efficient of all when it is wisely dealt out.^

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Refer- End of the National Assembly: Mathews, French Revolution,
ences. Chapter XIII, pp. 166-181 ; Stephens, History of the French Revo-

lution, Vol. I, Chapter XV, pp. 434-470; Cambridge Modern History,
Vol. VIII, pp. 199-210.

Opening of the War with Europe: Mathews, pp. 182-195; Ste-
phens, Vol. II, pp. 27-44.

Conditions in Europe in 1792: Fyffe, History of Modern Europe,
Chapter I, pp. 1-27.

Tenth of August and the September Massacres : Stephens,
Vol. II, Chapter IV, pp. 107-150 ; Mathews, pp. 195-206 ; Cambridge
Modern History, Vol. VIII, pp. 228-244.

Establishment of the Republic : Mathews, Chapter XV, pp. 207-
224; Stephens, Vol. II, Chapter V, pp. 151-180.

Reign of Terror in Paris : Stephens, Vol. II, Chapter X, pp. 321-
361 ; Mathews, Chapter XVI, pp. 224-233 ; Cambridge Modern His-
tory, Vol. VIII, Chapter XII, pp. 338-371.

Reign of Terror in the Provinces : Mathews, Chapter XVII,
pp. 234-251 ; Stephens, Vol. II, Chapter XI, pp. 362-414.

Robespierre: Mathews, Chapter XVIII, pp. 252-265.

Reaction after Thermidor : Mathews, Chapter XIX, pp. 266-285;
Cainbridge Modern History, Vol. VIII, Chapter XIII, pp. 372-397.

Course of the War to 1795: Fyffe, Chapter II, pp. 28-73; Cam-
bridge Modern History, Chapter XIV, pp. 398-446.

tin spite of Desmoulin’s eloquent and wise plea for clemency, his friend
Robespierre refused to support him, and he was brought to the scaffold, along
with Danton, by the party which held that moderation was synonymous with
treason to the cause of republican liberty.

The First French Republic

461

Stephens, H. Morse, A History of the Fretich Revolution, 2 vols.,
1886-1891 (the third volume, which should bring down the story to the
close of the Reign of Terror, has unfortunately never appeared). This
is by far the best account to be had in English, perhaps in any language.
It is free from both partisanship and sentimentality, and is based on the
results of modern French scholarship. Its inaccuracies in detail do not
impair its essential value. The same author in his Europe, ij8g-i8ip,
1893, furnishes a good summary of the political history of the revolu-
tionary period.

Taine, The French Revolution (from the French), 3 vols. Covers
the period 1789 to 1794. A brilliant arraignment of many of the leaders
of the Revolution, which the author treats in an unsympathetic spirit.
His style, insight, and research, however, serve to give his work both
marked originality and value.

Carlyle, The French Revolution, originally published in 1837 ; new
edition with notes by Fletcher and another edition edited by Rose. This
famous bit of literature can scarcely be termed a history ; it is a bril-
liant and erratic commentary on the men and ideas of the times, full of
profound observation, not unmixed with highly colored trivialities and
inconsequential reflections. Profitable and amusing for one familiar with
the actual course of events.

Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century, Chapters XVIII-XX,
on the French Revolution. These have been published in a separate
volume (Appleton).

Sloane, The Erench Revolution and Religious Reform. An account
of the ecclesiastical legislation and its influence on affairs in France
from 1789 to 1804 (1901).

Mallet, B., Mallet du Pan and the French Revolution, 1902. A sym-
pathetic account of a well-known journalist.

Belloc, Danton, and by the same writer, Robespierre. Two read-
able biographies.

Morley, Critical Miscellanies (see above, p. 394). Some of these
essays are concerned with the revolutionary leaders and thinkers.

Mahan, hifluence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and
Empire, 2 vols. The author aims to explain the successes of Great
Britain by its control of the seas.

Very few of the sources are to be had in English. The following may
be noted.

The Annual Register for the period contains some documents.

Anderson, Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of
the History of Prance, ij8g-igoi, gives important state papers.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

The sources
in English.

462

Readings in European Histojy

Burke and

Thomas

Paine.

C. Material
for advanced
study.

Sorel’s great
work.

Special works.

Young, Arthur, Travels (see above, p. 373), for the opening of
the Estates General.

Morris, Gouverneur, Diary and Letters, 2 vols., 1888. Observa-
tions of an American.

The Correspondence of William Augustus Miles on the French Revo-
lution, ijSg-iSiy, 2 vols., 1890.

Pasquier, History of my Time, Memoirs, 1893-1894, Vol. I.

Rigby, E., Letters fro7?i France in iy8g, 1880.

Mallet du Pan, Memoirs and Correspondence, ed. Sayous, 2 vols.,
1852.

Fersen, Diary and Correspondence relating to the Court of France,
1892.

Most of the memoirs mentioned below, p. 531, relating mainly to
the Napoleonic period, have something to say of the Revolution, and
the same may be said for those mentioned above, p. 396.

Some notion of the attitude of certain conservative Englishmen
toward the Revolution may be found in Burke’s famous Reflections on
the French Revolution, — • a wild and indiscriminate attack upon the
whole movement. It was answered by Thomas Paine in his celebrated
tract. The Rights of Man, a defense of the cause of the people.

Aulard, V Histoire politique de la revolution franqaise, ifSg-iSop,
1901. Recent, and by one who has devoted years to a sympathetic
study of the revolutionary movement.

SoREL, Albert, V Europe et la Revolution fraiigaise, 8 vols. (com-
ing down to 1815), 1885-1904, Vols. II-IV. This extraordinary work
supersedes all others on the subject. While it is a history of the
effects of the Revolution throughout Europe, it contains excellent chap-
ters on the course of events in Paris and France. The later volumes
cover the Napoleonic period.

Jaures, Histoire socialiste, iy8g-rgoo. Vols. I-IV by Jaures on
Constituante, Legislative et Convention jusqii’au g Thermidor ; and Vol. V
by Deville, Die g Thermidor au 18 Brumaire.

Dictionnaire historique et biographique de la revolution^t de V empire,
if8g-i8ig, 2 vols., 1899. Useful work of reference.

Ch:^rest, La Chute de I'ancien regime, 3 vols., 1884-1886 (uncom-
pleted). A very detailed study of the years 1786-1789.

Champion, La France d’aprls les cahiers de ij8g. Admirable.

Chassin, Le Genie de la revolution, 2 vols., 1863-1865. A study of
the cahiers.

The First French Republic

463

Stern, Das Lebeu Mirabeaus, 2 vols., 1889.

Gomel, Histoire financiere de V Assemblee constituante, 2 vols., 1896—
1897. Excellent. See also for this and the later period, Stourm, Les
Finances de I'ancien regime et de la revolution, 2 vols., 1885.

SCIOUT, Histoire de la constitutio7i civile du clerge, ijgo-1801, 4 vols.,
1872-1881.

Champion, La separation de I'eglise et de I'etat en 17^4. A remark-
able little volume.

Campardan, Le Tribunal revolutionnaire de Paris, 2 vols., 1886.

Robinet, Le Mouvement religieux pendant la revolution, iy8g-i8oi,
1896.

Mortimer-Ternaux, Histoire de la Terreur, 8 vols., 1862 (uncom-
pleted). Contains many interesting documents.

Wallon, La Terreur, 2 vols., 188 r. This author has also issued
two other important and elaborate contributions to the history of the
Reign of Terror: Histoire du tribunal revolutioimaire de Paris, and Les
Representafits du peuple en mission.

Vatel, Vergniaud, 2 vols., 1873 ; and Charlotte Corday et les Giron-
dins : pieces classees et annotees, 3 vols., 1864-1872.

Eire, La Legende des girondins. Refutes some common errors.

Hericault, La Revolution de Thermidor, 1876.

Chuquet, Les Guerres de la revolution, 1886-1896, ii vols. (coming
down only to September, 1793).

VCEuvre sociale de la revolution frangaise. A series of excellent
essays by Faguet and others.

Of the biographies, some of the best are :

Claretie, J., Camille Desmoulins, Lucile Desmoulins : Etude sur
les dantonistes, 1875. Charming. To be had in an English translation.

Chevremont, Marat, 2 vols., 1880. Dauban, Etude sur Madame
Roland et son temps, 2 vols., 1864. Hamel, Histoire de Robespierre,
3 vols. ; excessively laudatory. Mallet, Mallet du Paji and the French
Revolution, 1902. Robinet, Danton, 1889.

Aulard, Les Orateurs de V Assemblee co7istituante, 1882, and Les
Orateurs de la Legislative et de la Convention.

La Revolutio7i fran^aise. A periodical edited by Aulard, 1881 sqq.,
and dedicated to a study of the Revolution.

The advanced student should be on his guard against losing himself
in the bewildering number of secondary works on the Revolution, and
should early acquaint himself with the scope and character of the chief
collections of sources, of which the most important are :

Biographies
of the revo-
lutionary
leaders.

The sources.

464

Readings in European History

The news-
papers.

Collections
of the
Cahiers.

Great collec-
tions of
materials.

Memoirs.

Buchez et Roux, Histoire parlementaire de la revolution fraiK^aise,
40 vols., 1834-1838. This contains extracts from the debates in the
Assembly, with the text of some of the important decrees. It gives
quotations from the newspapers and from the speeches in the Jacobin
and other political clubs, etc. Notwithstanding very defective tables of
contents, this has been the mainstay of many writers, and is still very
valuable, by reason of its comprehensiveness and cheapness; the 40
volumes are procurable in Paris for from fifteen to twenty dollars.

Reimpression de Vancien Moniteur (several editions), 32 vols. This
is a reprint of one of the most important newspapers of the revolution-
ary period. It can be bought for about twenty dollars. Examples of
other important newspapers may be found in our best libraries.

Archives parlementaires de iy8y-i86o, first series, 1787-1799, of
which some 66 volumes have appeared, reaching the middle of the year
1793. This is an official but not very critical collection of the debates
in the successive French legislative bodies, and occasionally includes
other useful material. Vol. I contains an excellent account of the
events preceding the opening of the Estates General.

Vols. II-VI of the Archives parlementaires contain the. most com-
plete collection in existence of the cahiers ; but this must be supple-
mented by the collections of local cahiers which appear from time to
time. (See Cambridge Modern History , Vol. VIII, pp. 802 sql)

Much attention has been given in the past twenty years to the pub-
lication of documents, especially in Paris. The following collections
are important : Brette, Recueil des docuinents relatifs a la convocation
des etats geniraux, 2 vols., 1894-1896 ; Aulard, La Societe des Jacobins,
6 vols., 1889-1897 ; Recueil des actes du Co7nite de salut publique, 16
vols., 1889-1904.

Mirabeau, Correspondance avec le comte de la March, 3 vols., 1851.
Very important. Stephens, H. Morse, The Principal Speeches of the
Statesmen and Orators of the French Revolution, i'j8g-i’jgp, 2 vols..
Clarendon Press. Very useful.

Legg, Select Docmnents Illustrative of the History of the French Revo-
lution, The Constituent Assembly, 2 vols.. Clarendon Press, 1905. An
admirable “ source book.” The comments are in English ; the extracts
are reproduced in the original French.

Of the many memoirs, perhaps the most important are those of
Bailey, Ferrieres, Mallet du Pan, Malouet, the Comte de
Fersen, etc.i

1 See bibliographies in the Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VIII, and in the
Histoire generate, Vol. VIII.

CHAPTER XXXVII

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE ^

I. Boyhood of Napoleon

When nine years old Napoleon Bonaparte and his
brother Joseph accompanied their father to France,
where the boys were to go to school and learn French.
One of their teachers in Autun thus writes of them :

Napoleon brought with him to Autun a somber and
pensive character. He never played with any one and ordi-
narily walked by himself. . . . He had much ability ; under-
stood and learned readily. When I was teaching him his
lesson he would fix his eyes upon me with his mouth open.
If I tried to recapitulate what I had just said, he would not
listen to me. If I blamed him for this, he would reply with
a cold, not to say imperious, air, “ I know that, sir.”

I only had him under me for three months. . . . He had
by that time learned French so as to make use of it freely
in conversation, and could write little themes and make little
translations. ... At the end of three months I sent him
off with a certain Monsieur de Champeaux to the military
school at Brienne.

Joseph also had much ability : although he took but little
interest in study, and knew no French at all when he
arrived, he learned it very promptly, as well as the begin-
nings of Latin. . . . He was as decent and agreeable in
his manner as his brother was imperious. His nature was
sweet, engaging, and appreciative. He was fond of his com-
panions and protected those whom others annoyed. I never
saw in him the least indications of ambition.

465

418. How

Napoleon

and his

brother

Joseph

learned

French.

Joseph’s

character.

466

Readings in European History

Napoleon early developed the ability to judge Tnen
and assign them to their appropriate spheres. Before
he left Brienne his father visited him, bringing his
younger brother Lucien, together with the news that
his brother Joseph was planning to give up the clerical
career he had chosen and become a soldier. Although
not yet fifteen years old, Napoleon writes of the matter
to his uncle as follows ;

419. Napo-
leon’s early
insight into
character.

My dear Uncle :

I am writing to inform you that my dear father has just
passed through Brienne on his way to place Marianne
[i.e. Napoleon’s sister, filise] in the convent at St. Cyr, after
which he will take measures to regain his health. He ar-
rived here on the 21st instant with Lucien. The latter he
left here. He is nine years old and three feet eleven inches
and six lines tall. He is in the sixth form so far as his Latin
goes, and he is about to take up the various other branches.

He knows French very well, but he has forgotten Italian
altogether. I hope that he will now write you more fre-
quently than when he was at Autun. I am convinced that
my brother Joseph has not written to you; and how could
you expect him to when he only writes a few lines to my
dear father, when he writes at all ?

As to the career which he proposes to embrace, the eccle-
siastical was, as you know, the first that he chose. He per-
sisted in that resolution until now, when he proposes to go into
the king’s service. He is wrong in this for several reasons.

First, as my dear father observes, he has not the cour-
age necessary to face the dangers of an action,' and his
feeble health would not permit him to bear the fatigues of
a campaign. My brother only looks at military life from the
standpoint of a garrison. Yes, my dear brother would be a
good garrison officer; he is well made and has that light
spirit which adapts him to frivolous compliments. He would
always shine in society, but in battle — that is what my
father is doubtful about. . . .

Napoleon Bonapai'te

467

Second, he has been educated for the ecclesiastical estate,
and it is much too late to give this up. The bishop of
Autun would have given him a fine benefice, and he would
have been sure to have become bishop. What an advan-
tage for his family ! The bishop has done all he could to
induce him to persist in his original purpose, promising
him that he would not be sorry. However, he has made up
his mind. I would praise him if only he had a decided taste
for this profession, which is the finest of all professions. If
only the great Director of human affairs, in forming him,
had given him, as he has me, a decided inclination for mili-
tary life !

He wants to go into the army ; that is well enough, but
in what department ? The marine ? But, in the first place,
he knows no mathematics, and it will take him two years to
master the subject. In the second place, his health is in-
compatible with a life on the sea.

Shall it be the engineers’ division ? He would require
four or five years to learn what is necessary, and at the
end of that time he would only be a beginner. Moreover I
believe that the necessity of working all day is not compat-
ible with the lightness of his character. The same reason
which holds for the engineers holds for the artillery. . . .
That certainly is not to his taste.

Let us see, then. Doubtless he would like to go into the
infantry. Good ; I can comprehend that. He would like to
have nothing to do all day except to walk about the streets.
And what is a little infantry officer, anyway — except a hard
case three fourths of the time ? This is just what my dear
father, and you, and my mother, and my uncle the arch-
deacon would not wish, for he has already shown some little
indications of light-headedness and prodigality.

Consequently a last effort will be made to induce him to
pursue a clerical career. Otherwise my dear father will
carry him back to Corsica with him, so that he may keep an
eye on him, and they will try to have him enter the law.

I close with the hope that you will continue to retain me
in your good graces : to render myself worthy of them will

420. Circum-
stances
under which
Bonaparte
undertook
the Italian
campaign.

468 Readings in EiLVopean History

be my most cherished ambition. I am, with most profound
respect, my dear uncle, your very humble and very obedient
servant and nephew,

Napoleone di Buonaparte.

P.S. Destroy this letter.

II. Bonaparte’s Italian Campaign (1796-1797)

A writer, Las Cases, who accompanied -Napoleon to
St. Helena, gathered the following information from the
exiled emperor in regard to the circumstances of Bona-
parte’s first campaign.

During the period of his command at Paris subsequent
to the 1 8th Vende'miaire, Napoleon had to deal with a
great dearth of food, which occasioned several popular com-
motions. One day, when the usual distribution of bread
had not taken place, crowds of people collected around
the bakers’ shops. Napoleon was patrolling the city with
a party of his staff to preserve public order. A crowd
of persons, chiefly women, assembled around him, loudly
calling for bread. The crowd grew, the outcries increased,
and the situation of Napoleon and his officers became crit-
ical. A woman of monstrously robust appearance was par-
ticularly conspicuous by her gestures and exclamations.
“Those fine epauleted fellows,” said she, pointing to the
officers, “ laugh at our distress ; so long as they can eat
and grow fat, they do not care if the poor people die of
hunger.” Napoleon turned to her and said, “My good
woman, look at me ; which is the fatter, you or I Napo-
leon was at that time extremely thin. “ I was merely a slip
of parchment,” said he. A general burst of laughter dis-
armed the fury of the populace, and the staff officers con-
tinued their round.

Napoleon’s memoirs of the campaign in Italy show how
he became acquainted with Madame de Beauharnais, and
how he contracted the marriage which has been so greatly
misrepresented in the accounts of the time. As soon as he

Napoleon Bonaparte

469

got himself introduced to Madame de Beauharnais he spent
almost every evening at her house, which was frequented by
the most agreeable company in Paris. When the majority
of the party retired, there usually remained Monsieur de
Montesquiou, the father of the grand chamberlain, the duke
of Nivernais, so celebrated for the graces of his wit, and a few
others. They used to look around to see that the doors were
all shut, and then they would say, “Now let us sit down and
chat about the old court ; let us revisit Versailles once more.”

The poverty of the treasury and the scarcity of specie
were so great during the republic that on the departure of
General Bonaparte to join the army of Italy all his efforts,
joined to those of the Directory, only resulted in raising
two thousand louis, which he carried with him in his car-
riage. With this sum he set out to conquer Italy, and to
advance toward the empire of the world. The following is
a curious fact. An order of the day was issued, signed by
Berthier, directing the general in chief, on his arrival at the
headquarters at Nice, to distribute to the different generals
the sum of four louis in specie to enable them to enter on
the campaign. For a considerable time no such thing as
specie had been seen. This order of the day displays the
circumstances of the time more truly and faithfully than
whole volumes written on the subject.

As soon as Napoleon joined the army he proved himself
to be a man born to command. From that moment he filled
the theater of the world ; he occupied all Europe ; he was a
meteor blazing in the firmament ; he centered all eyes on
himself, riveted all thoughts, and formed the subject of all
conversation. From that time every gazette, every publica-
tion, every monument became the record of his deeds. His
name was inscribed on every page and in every line, and
echoed from every mouth.

His entrance upon the command produced a revolution in
his manners, conduct, and language. Deeres has often told
me that he was at Toulon when he first heard of Napoleon’s
appointment to the command of the army of Italy. He had
known him well in Paris and thought himself on terms of

Bonaparte
falls in with
the former
aristocracy.

Bonaparte
alters his
friendly
manner.

470

Readmgs in European History

Bonaparte’s
freedom from
greed.

perfect intimacy with him. “ So,’’ said he, “ when we learned
that the new general was about to pass through the city, I
immediately proposed to introduce my comrades to him, and
to turn my former connection with him to the best account.
I hastened to meet him full of eagerness and joy. The door
of the apartment was thrown open, and I was on the point
of rushing toward him with my wonted familiarity ; but his
attitude, his look, the tone of his voice suddenly deterred
me. There was nothing offensive either in his appearance
or manner, but the impression he produced v/as sufficient to
prevent me from ever again attempting to encroach upon
the distance that separated us.”

Napoleon’s generalship was characterized by the skill,
energy, and purity of his military administration ; his con-
stant dislike of peculation of any kind, and his total dis-
regard of his own private interest. “ I returned from the
campaign in Italy,” said he, “ with but three hundred thou-
sand francs in my possession. I might easily have carried
off ten or twelve millions and have kept it for my own. I
never made out any accounts, nor was I ever asked for any.
I expected, on my return, to receive some great national
reward. It was publicly reported that Chambord was to be
given to me, and I should have been very glad to have had
the chateau ; but the idea was set aside by the Directory.
I had, however, sent back to France at least fifty millions
for the service of the state. This I imagine was the first
instance in modern history of an army contributing to main-
tain the country to which it belonged instead of being a
burden to it.”

The young and rather inexperienced General Bonaparte
had to lead his ill-equipped troops against the combined
armies of Austria and of the king of Sardinia. His suc-
cess was, nevertheless, immediate ; and after the opening
victories in the mountains separating France from Pied-
mont, he found himself in a position to cheer his troops
by the following proclamation :

Napoleon Bonaparte 471

Headquarters at Cherasco,

7th Floreal, Year IV [April 26, 1796].

Soldiers :

You have in a fortnight won six victories, taken twenty-
one standards, fifty-five pieces of artillery, several strong
places, and conquered the richest part of Piedmont ; you
have made fifteen thousand prisoners and killed or wounded
more than ten thousand men. Previously you had fought
for sterile crags, which, although you made them famous by
your prowess, were useless to your country ; to-day your
services put you on a footing with the army of Holland or
of the Rhine.

Without any resources you have supplied all that was
necessary. You have won battles without cannons, passed
rivers without bridges, made forced marches without shoes,
camped without brandy and often without bread. Only
republican phalanxes, soldiers of liberty, would have been
able to bear what you have borne. Thanks be to you, sol-
diers, for this. Your grateful country will owe its prosperity
to you. As conquerors at Toulon you but foreshadowed
the immortal campaign of 1794 ; even so your present victo-
ries are but harbingers of still greater.

The two armies which but recently attacked you with con-
fidence are fleeing in consternation before you. Those mis-
guided men who laughed at your misery and rejoiced in the
thought of the triumph of your enemies have been confounded.

But, soldiers, you have done nothing as yet compared with
what there still remains to do. Neither Turin nor Milan
yet belongs to you. ... You were destitute of everything
at the opening of the campaign ; to-day you are provided
abundantly. Numerous stores have been taken from your
enemies and siege and field guns have arrived.

Soldiers, your country is justified in expecting great things
of you. Will you fulfill its hopes ? The greatest obstacles un-
doubtedly have been overcome, but you have still battles to
fight, cities to take, rivers to cross. Is there any one among
you whose courage is slackening ? Is there any one who would
prefer to return across the summits of the Apennines and

421. Bona-
parte’s proc-
lamation to
his soldiers
on their
arrival in
Italy.

Stsrn prohi-
bition of
pillage.

472 Readings in Europeati History

the Alps and bear patiently the insults of a slavish soldiery?
No, there is none such among the conquerors of Monte-
notte, of Dego, of Mondovi. All of you are burning to extend
the glory of the French people. All long to humiliate those
haughty kings who dare to contemplate placing us in fetters.
All desire to dictate a glorious peace and one which will
indemnify our country for the immense sacrifices which it
has made ; all would wish, as they return to their native
villages, to be able to say proudly, “ I was with the victori-
ous army of Italy ! ”

Friends, I can promise you this conquest, but there is one
condition which you must swear to fulfill. That is to respect
the peoples whom you deliver, and repress the horrible pil-
lage which certain rascals, incited by our enemies, commit.
Otherwise, you will not be the deliverers of the people but
their scourge ; you will not do honor to the French people,
but will thereby disavow your country. Your victories, your
bravery, your success, the blood of our brothers who have
died in battle, — all will be lost, even honor and glory. As for
me and the generals who have your confidence, we should
blush to command an army without discipline and restraint,
which recognizes no law but force. . . . Any one who en-
gages in pillage will be shot without mercy.

Peoples of Italy, the French army comes to break your
chains; the French people is the friend of all peoples. You
may receive them with confidence. Your property, your reli-
gion, and your customs will be respected. We are carrying
on war as generous enemies, and we have no grudge except
against the tyrants who oppress you.

Bonaparte.

Bourrienne, one of Napoleon’s early companions and
later his secretary, gives us an account in his memoirs
of the motives which led General Bonaparte to sign the
Treaty of Campo-Formio.

The early appearance of bad weather hastened Napo-
leon’s determination. On the 13th of October, at daybreak, on

Napoleon Bonaparte 473

opening my window I perceived the mountains covered with
snow. The previous night had been superb, and the autumn,
till then, had promised to be fine and late. I proceeded, as
I always did at seven o’clock in the morning, to the gene-
ral’s chamber. I awoke him and told him what I had seen.
He feigned at first to disbelieve me, then leaped from his
bed, ran to the window, and, convinced of the sudden
change, he calmly said, “ What ! before the middle of Octo-
ber ? What a country ! Well, we must make peace.” While
he hastily put on his clothes I read the journals to him, as
is my daily custom. He paid but little attention to them.

Shutting himself up with me in his closet, he reviewed
with the greatest care all the returns from the different corps
of his army. “ Here are,” said he, “ nearly eighty thousand
effective men. I feed, I pay them ; but I can bring but
sixty thousand into the field on the day of battle. I shall
gain it, but afterwards my force will be reduced by twenty
thousand men, — by killed, wounded, and prisoners. How
then shall I oppose all the Austrian forces that will march
to the protection of Vienna ? It would be a month before
the armies could support me, if they should be able to do it
at all ; and in a fortnight all the roads and passes will be
covered deep with snow. It is settled — I will make peace.
Venice shall pay for the expense of the war and the bound-
ary of the Rhine ; let the Directory and the lawyers say
what they like.”

He wrote to the Directory in the following words : “ The
summits of the hills are covered with snow ; I cannot, on
account of the stipulations agreed to in regard to the recom-
mencement of hostilities, open them again for twenty-five
days, and by that time we shall be overwhelmed with snow.”

. . . It is well known that by the Treaty of Campo-Formio
the two belligerent powers made peace at the expense of the
republic of Venice, which had nothing to do with the quarrel
in the first instance, and which only interfered at a late
period, probably against her own inclination, and impelled
by the force of inevitable circumstances. But what has been
the result of this great political spoliation ? A portion of the

422. How
Bonaparte
was led to
sign tlie
Treaty of
Campo-
Formio.

Provisions
of the Treaty
of Campo-
Formio.

474

Readings in European History

Destruction
of the
Venetian
republic.

Bonaparte
disregards
the instruc-
tions of the
Directory.

423. Bona-
parte’s proc-
lamation to
his Egyptian
army (Sep-
tember 22,
1798).

Venetian territory was adjudged to the Cisalpine republic ;
it is now in the possession of Austria. Another considerable
portion, including the capital itself, fell to the lot of Austria
in compensation for the Belgian provinces and Lombardy,
which she ceded to France.

. . . The Directory was far from being satisfied with the
Treaty of Campo-Formio and with difficulty resisted the
temptation not to ratify it. A fortnight before the signature
of the treaty, the directors wrote to General Bonaparte that
they would not consent to give the emperor Venice, Friuli,
Padua, and the Venetian terra Jirma, with the Adige as a
boundary. “ That,” they said, “ would not be to make peace,
but to postpone the war. We shall be regarded as the
beaten party, independently of the disgrace of abandoning
Venice, which Bonaparte himself thought so worthy of free-
dom. France ought not, and never will wish, to see Italy
delivered up to Austria.” . . . All this was, however, said
in vain. Bonaparte made no scruple of disregarding his
instructions.

III. The Egyptian Expedition : the i8th Brumaire

After the first disasters in Egypt, Bonaparte thus
encouraged his troops ;

Headquarters, Cairo, ist Vendemiaire, Year VII.

Soldiers :

We are celebrating the first day of the seventh year of the
republic. Five years ago the independence of the French
people was threatened, but you took Toulon; this was a
harbinger of the ruin of our enemies. A year later you
defeated the Austrians at Dego ; the following year you
were on the summit of the Alps. Two years ago you were
fighting for Mantua, and you gained the famous victory of
St. George. Last year you were at the sources of the Drave
and the Isonzo, and had returned from Germany. Who
would have said then that you would to-day be upon the
banks of the Nile in the midst of an ancient continent.^

Napoleon Bonaparte

475

The eyes of the world are centered upon you, from those of
the English, famed in arts and trade, to the wild and hide-
ous Bedouin.

Soldiers, your destiny is a glorious one, because you are
worthy of all that you have accomplished and of the fame
which you enjoy. You will die with honor like the brave
men whose names are inscribed upon this pyramid,^ or you
will return to your country covered with laurels and a source
of wonder to all.

During the five months which we have been absent from
Europe we have been the object of constant solicitude on
the part of our compatriots. To-day, forty millions of citi-
zens celebrate the advent of representative government;
these forty millions are thinking of you, and are saying, “ It
is to their labors and to their blood that we shall owe a
general peace, tranquillity, flourishing commerce, and the
advantages of civil liberty.”

One of Bonaparte’s companions in Egypt reports the
following conference between the general and the muftis,
or expounders of the Mohammedan laws.

Whilst at Cairo, Bonaparte, on a visit to the pyramids,
seated himself on the Soros and held a long conversation
with the muftis. “Glory to Allah! ” said he ; “there is no
other God but God. Mohammed is his prophet and I am
his friend. Muftis I the divine Koran is the delight of my
soul and the object of my contemplation. I love the Prophet,
and I hope erelong to see and honor his tomb in the Holy
City.

“But my mission is first to exterminate the Mamelukes.
If Egypt be their portion, let them show me the lease that
God has given them. But the angel of death has breathed
upon them : we are come and they have disappeared. The
days of regeneration are come. He that hath ears, let him
hear. The hour of political resurrection has struck for all

1 A wooden pyramid on which were inscribed the names of the offi-
cers and soldiers who had already fallen in Egypt.

424. Bona-
parte in-
forms the
Moham-
medans that
he is their
friend.

Felicitations
of the Mo-
hammedan
muftis.

476 Readings in Europeajt History

who groan under oppression. Muftis, imams, mollahs, der-
vishes, and kalenders : instruct the people of Egypt ; encour-
age them to join in our labors to complete the destruction
of the Beys and the Mamelukes. Favor the commerce of
the Franks in your country and their endeavors to arrive at
the ancient land of Brahma. Let them have storehouses in
your ports, and drive far from you the English, accursed
among the children of Jesus! Such is the will of Moham-
med. The treasures, industry, and friendship of the Franks
shall be your lot till you ascend to the seventh heaven and
are seated by the side of the black-eyed houris who are
endowed with perpetual youth and maidenhood.”

The Mohammedan muftis in return called him an envoy
of God, the favorite of Mohammed, the successor of Iskan-
der [i.e. Alexander the Great] most valiant among the chil-
dren of Jesus. “ May the Prophet,” said one of them, “ cause
thee to sit at his left hand on the day of resurrection, after
the third sound of the trumpet.” “ At length,” said another,
“ the dawn of happiness breaks upon us ; the time destined
by God has arrived ; an atmosphere of felicity surrounds us.
The resplendent star of victory, which guides the French
warriors, has shed upon us its dazzling light ; fame and honor
go before them ; good fortune and honor accompany them.
The chief who marches at their head is impetuous and ter-
rible ; his name terrifies kings. Princes bow their haughty
heads before this invincible Bonaparte.”^

Madame de Remusat, whose husband was one of
Napoleon’s secretaries, gives, in her delightful and im-
portant memoirs, a good account of Bonaparte’s atti-
tude toward the Egyptian adventure and his return to
France. He said to her :

When I returned to France I found public opinion in a
lethargic condition. In Paris — and Paris is France —

1 Similar sentiments are expressed in some of Bonaparte’s proclama-
tions printed in his correspondence and in the extract from the memoirs
of Madame de Remusat, given below.

Napoleon Bonaparte

A77

people can never interest themselves in things if they do not
care about the persons connected with them. The customs of
an old monarchy had taught them to personify everything.
This habit of mind is bad for a people who desire liberty
seriously; but Frenchmen can no longer desire anything
seriously, except perhaps it be equality, and even that they
would renounce willingly if every one could flatter himself
that he was the first.

To be equals, with everybody uppermost, is the secret of
the vanity of all of you ; every man among you must, there-
fore, be given the hope of rising. The great difficulty that the
Directory labored under was that no one cared about them
and that people had begun to care a great deal about me.

I do not know what would have happened to me had I
not conceived the happy thought of going to Egypt. When
I embarked I did not know but that I might be bidding an
eternal farewell to France ; but I had little doubt that she
would recall me. The charm of Oriental conquest drew my
thoughts away from Europe more than I should have believed
possible. My imagination interfered again this time with my
actions ; but I think it died out at St. Jean d’Acre. How-
ever that may be, I shall never allow it to interfere with me
again.

In Egypt I found myself free from the wearisome restraints
of civilization. I dreamed all sorts of things, and I saw how
all that I dreamed might be realized. I created a religion.
I pictured myself on the road to Asia mounted on an ele-
phant, with a turban on my head, and in my hand a new
Koran, which I should compose according to my own ideas.
I would have the combined experience of two worlds to set
about my enterprise ; I was to have ransacked, for my own
advantage, the whole domain of history; I was to have
attacked the English power in India, and renewed my rela-
tions with old Europe by my conquest.

The time which I passed in Egypt was the most delight-
ful part of my life, for it was the most ideal. Eate decided
against my dreams ; I received letters from France ; I saw
that there was not a moment to lose. I reverted to the

425. Bona-
parte’s
attitude
toward his
Egyptian
adventure.

Bonaparte’s
dreams of
Oriental
conquest.

478

Readings in European History

Bonaparte’s
policy on his
return from
Egypt.

426. Bona-
parte’s own
account of

his coup d’etat
of Brumaire.

realities of life and I returned to Paris — to Paris, where the
gravest interests of the country are discussed during the
entr'acte of the opera.

The Directory trembled at my return. I was very cau-
tious ; that is one of the epochs of my life in which I have
acted with the soundest judgment, I saw Abbe Sieyes, and
promised him that his verbose constitution should be put
into effect; I received the chiefs of the Jacobins and the
agents of the Bourbons ; I listened to advice from every-
body, but gave it only in the interest of my own plans. I
hid myself from the people, because I knew that when the
time came curiosity to see me would make them run after
me. Every one was taken in my toils ; and, when I became
head of the state, there was not a party in France which did
not build some special hope upon my success.

General Bonaparte thus described for the benefit of
the public his coup d' etat :

To the People : ' Brumaire, 1 1 o’clock p.m.

Frenchmen, on my return to France I found division
reigning among all the authorities. They agreed only on
this single point, that the constitution was half destroyed
and was unable to protect liberty.

Each party in turn came to me, confided to me their
designs, imparted their secrets, and requested my support.
But I refused to be the man of a party.

The Council of Elders appealed to me. I answered their
appeal. A plan of general restoration had been concerted by
men whom the nation has been accustomed to regard as
the defenders of liberty, equality, and property. This plan
required calm deliberation, free from all influence and all
fear. The Elders therefore resolved upon the removal of
the legislative bodies to St. Cloud. They placed at my dis-
posal the force necessary to secure their independence. I
was bound, in duty to my fellow-citizens, to the soldiers per-
ishing in our armies, and to the national glory acquired at
the cost of so much blood, to accept the command.

Napoleon Bonaparte

479

The Council assembled at St. Cloud. Republican troops
guaranteed their safety from without, but assassins created
terror within. Many deputies in the Council of Five Hun-
dred, armed with stilettos and pistols, spread the menace of
death around them.

The plans which ought to have been developed were with-
held. The majority of the Council was disorganized, the
boldest orators were disconcerted, and the futility of sub-
mitting any salutary proposition was quite evident.

I proceeded, filled with indignation and chagrin, to the
Council of the Elders. I besought them to carry their noble
designs into execution. I directed their attention to the
evils of the nation, which were their motives for conceiving
those designs. They concurred in giving me new proofs of
their unanimous good will.

I presented myself before the Council of the Five Hun-
dred alone, unarmed, my head uncovered, just as the Elders
had received and applauded me. My object was to restore
to the majority the expression of its will and to secure to it
its power.

The stilettos which had menaced the deputies were
instantly raised against their deliverer. Twenty assassins
rushed upon me and aimed at my breast. The grenadiers
of the Legislative Body, whom I had left at the door of the
hall, ran forward and placed themselves between me and the
assassins. One of these brave grenadiers [Thome] had his
clothes pierced by a stiletto.^ They bore me out.

At the same moment cries of “ Outlaw him ! ” were raised
against the defender of the law. It was the horrid cry of
assassins against the power destined to repress them. They
crowded around the president [Lucien Bonaparte] uttering
threats. With arms in their hands, they commanded him
to declare me outlawed. I was informed of this. I ordered
him to be rescued from their fury, and six grenadiers of the
legislative body brought him out. Immediately afterwards

1 Thome had a small part of his coat torn by a deputy who took him
by the collar. This constituted, according to Bourrienne, the whole of
the attempted assassination of the 19th Brumaire.

General
Bonaparte
favorably
received by
the Council
of the Elders

Bonaparte
claims that
he was
murderously
assailed in
the Council
of the Five
Hundred.

427. The
campaign of
Marengo as
described by
Bourrienne.

Situation of

Bonaparte

after

Brumaire.

480 Readings in European History

some grenadiers of the legislative body charged the hall and
cleared it.

The seditious, thus intimidated, dispersed and fled. The
majority, freed from their assailants, returned freely and
peaceably into the hall, listened to the propositions for the
public safety, deliberated, and drew up the salutary resolu-
tion which will become the new and provisional law of the
republic.

Frenchmen, you will doubtless recognize in this conduct
the zeal of a soldier of liberty, of a citizen devoted to the
republic. Conservative, judicial, and liberal ideas resumed
their sway upon the dispersion of those seditious persons
who had domineered in the councils and who proved them-
selves the most odious and contemptible of men.

Bonaparte.

IV. Marengo and Luneville

Bourrienne thus sketches the campaign of Marengo :

It cannot be denied that if, from the i8th Brumaire to
the epoch when Bonaparte began the campaign, innumer-
able improvements had been made in the internal affairs of
France, foreign affairs could not be viewed with the same
satisfaction. Italy had been lost, and the Austrian camp
fires might be seen from the frontiers of Provence. Bona-
parte was not ignorant of the difficulties of his position, and
it was even on account of these very difficulties that, what-
ever might be the result of his hazardous enterprise, he wished
to have it over as quickly as possible. He cherished no illu-
sions and often said all must be staked to gain all.

The army which the First Consul was preparing to attack,
was numerous, well disciplined, and victorious. His own
with the exception of a very small number of troops, was
composed of conscripts ; but these conscripts were com-
manded by officers whose ardor was unparalleled. Bona-'
parte’s fortune was now to depend on the winning or losing
of a single battle. A battle lost would have dispelled all the

Napoleo?i Bonaparte 481

dreams of his imagination, and with them would have van-
ished all his immense schemes for the future of France. . . .

The grand idea of the invasion of Italy by way of the
St. Bernard pass emanated exclusively from the First Con-
sul. This miraculous achievement justly excited the admira-
tion of the world. The incredible difficulties it presented
did not daunt the courage of Bonaparte’s troops, and his
generals, accustomed as they had been to brave fatigue and
danger, regarded without concern the gigantic enterprise of
the modern Hannibal.

A convent, or hospice, which has been established on the
mountain for the purpose of affording assistance to solitary
travelers, sufficiently attests the dangers of these stormy
regions. But the St. Bernard was now to be crossed not by
solitary travelers but by an army. Cavalry, baggage, tim-
bers, and artillery were now to wend, their way along those
narrow paths where the goatherd cautiously picks his foot-
steps. On the one hand masses of snow suspended above
our heads threatened every moment to break in avalanches
and sweep us away in their descent ; on the other, a false step
was death. We all passed, men and horses, one by one along
the goat paths. The artillery was dismounted and the guns
put into hollowed trunks of trees were drawn by ropes. . . .

We arrived at Milan on the 2d of June. But little resist-
ance was offered to our entrance into the capital of Lom-
bardy. The First Consul passed six days in the city, and the
time approached when all was to be lost or won. On the 13th
the First Consul slept at Torre di Galifolo. On the morning
of the 14th General Desaix was sent toward Novi to observe
the road to Genoa, which city had fallen several days before,
in spite of the efforts of its illustrious defender, Massena.

That memorable battle of Marengo, of which the results
were incalculable, has been described in various ways. For
my part, not having had the honor to bear a sword, I can-
not say that I saw any particular movements executed this
way or that ; but I may mention here what I heard on the
evening of the battle concerning the hazards of the day.
As to the part which the First Consul took in it, the reader

Crossing of
the St. Ber-
nard pass
(May, 1800),

(Condensed.)

The battle of
Marengo.

482

Readings in Europea7i History

Bonaparte
claims all the
glory for
himself.

is perhaps sufficiently acquainted with his character to
account for it. He did not choose that a result so decisive
should be attributed to any other cause than the combina-
tions of his genius; and if I had not known his insatiable
thirst for glory, I should have been surprised at the half
satisfaction evinced at the cause of the success amidst the
joy manifested for the success itself. It must be confessed
that in this he is very unlike Jourdan, Hoche, Kleber, and
Moreau, who were ever ready to acknowledge the services
of those who had fought under their orders.

Within two hours of the time when the divisions com-
manded by Desaix left San Giuliano I was joyfully sur-
prised by the triumphant return of the army whose fate,
since the morning, had caused me so much anxiety. Never
did fortune within so short a time show herself under two
such various faces. At two o’clock everything indicated the
misery of a defeat with all its fatal consequences ; at five,
victory was again faithful to the flag of Areola. Italy was
reconquered at a single blow, and the crown of France
appeared in the distance [to the victorious general].

The Treaty of Campo-Formio (see above, pp. 472 sqq)
was the fruit of Bonaparte’s first campaign in Italy
(1796-1797). After the temporary reverses suffered by
France during Bonaparte’s absence in Egypt, his victory
over the Austrians at Marengo, and another victory of
the French at Hohenlinden in December, 1800, put the
First Consul in a position to exact at Luneville all the
concessions which Austria had made at Campo-Formio
and somewhat more. The chief provisions of this impor-
tant treaty are here given. They well illustrate the
unscrupulous manner in which Austria and France dis-
posed of the lesser countries and the system of reckless
territorial changes which are so conspicuous during the
whole Napoleonic period.

Napoleon Bonaparte

483

His Majesty the emperor, king of Hungary and of Bohe-
mia, and the First Consul of the French republic, in the
name of the French people, induced by a common desire
to put an end to the evils of war, have resolved to proceed
to the conclusion of a definitive treaty of peace and amity.
Moreover his said Imperial and Royal Majesty, since he
desires no less sincerely to extend the benefits of peace to
the German empire, and since the existing conditions do
not afford the necessary time to consult the empire, or to per-
mit its representatives to take part in the negotiations, has
resolved, in view of the concessions made by the deputation
of the empire at the recent Congress of Rastadt, to treat in
the name of the German confederation, as has happened
before under similar circumstances.

Hence the contracting parties have named the following
as their plenipotentiaries :

His Imperial and Royal Majesty, the Sieur Louis, count
of Cobenzl, minister of conferences and vice chancellor of
the court and of state, etc.

The First Consul of the French republic, in the name of
the French people. Citizen Joseph Bonaparte, councilor of
state. These having exchanged their credentials, have agreed
upon the following articles :

Article I. Peace, amity, and a good understanding shall
hereafter exist forever between his Majesty the emperor,
king of Hungary and Bohemia, acting both in his own name
and in that of the German empire, and the French repub-
lic;.. .

II. The cession of the former Belgian provinces to the
French republic, stipulated in Article III of the Treaty of
Campo-Formio, is renewed here in the most solemn manner.
His Majesty the emperor and king therefore renounces for
himself and his successors, as well on his own part as on
that of the German empire, all right and title to the above
specified provinces, which shall be held in perpetuity by the
French republic in full sovereignty and proprietary right. . . .

HI. Moreover, in confirmation of Article VI of the Treaty
of Campo-Formio, his Majesty the emperor and king shall

428. Chief
articles of
the Peace of
Luneville
(February,
1801).

Austrian
Netherlands
ceded to
France.

484

Readings in Ettropean History

Venice and
most of its
territory
ceded to
Austria.

Duke of
Modena in-
demnified in
Germany.

Tuscany
given to duke
of Parma,
who belonged
to the Spanish
royal family.

Cession of
the left bank
of the Rhine
to France.

possess in full sovereignty and proprietary right the coun-
tries enumerated below, to wit : Istria, Dalmatia, and the
islands of the Adriatic, formerly belonging to Venice, de-
pendent upon them ; the mouths of the Cattaro, the city of
Venice, the Lagunes, and the territory included between the
hereditary states of his Majesty the emperor and king, the
Adriatic Sea, and the Adige from the point where it leaves
Tyrol to that where it flows into the Adriatic, the channel
of the Adige forming the boundary line. . . .

IV. Article XVIII of the Treaty of Campo-Formio is
likewise renewed, inasmuch as his Majesty the emperor and
king agrees to cede to the duke of Modena, as an indemnity
for the territory which this prince and his heirs possessed
in Italy, the Breisgau, which he shall hold upon the same
conditions as those upon which he held Modena.

V. It is further agreed that his Royal Highness the grand
duke of Tuscany shall renounce for himself, his successors,
or possible claimants, the grand duchy of Tuscany and that
part of the island of Elba belonging to it, as well as all rights
and titles resulting from the possession of the said states,
which shall hereafter be held in full sovereignty and propri-
etary right by his Royal Highness the infante duke of Parma.
The grand duke shall receive a complete and full indemnity
in Germany for the loss of his states in Italy. . . .

VI. His Majesty the emperor and king consents not only
on his part but upon the part of the German empire that the
French republic shall hereafter possess in full sovereignty
and proprietary right the territories and domains lying on
the left bank of the Rhine and forming a part of the Ger-
man empire, so that, in conformity with the concessions
granted by the deputation of the empire at the Congress of
Rastadt and approved by the emperor, the channel of the
Rhine shall hereafter form the boundary between the French
republic and the German empire, from that point where the
Rhine leaves Helvetian territory to the point where it reaches
Batavian territory. In view of this the French republic form-
ally renounces all possessions whatsoever upon the right
bank of the Rhine and agrees to restore to their owners the

Napoleon Bonaparte

485

following places : Diisseldorf, Ehrenbreitstein, Phillipsburg,
the fortress of Cassel and other fortifications across from
Mayence on the right bank of the stream, and the fortress
of Kiel and Alt-Breisach, under the express provision that
these places and forts shall continue to exist in the state in
which they are left at the time of the evacuation.

VII. Since, in consequence of this cession made by the
empire to the French republic, various princes and states of
the empire find themselves individually dispossessed in part
or wholly of their territory, and since the German empire
should collectively support the losses resulting from the stip-
ulations of the present treaty, it is agreed between his Maj-
esty the emperor and king, — - both on his part and upon the
part of the German empire, — and the French republic, that, in
accordance with the principles laid down at the Congress of
Rastadt, the empire shall be bound to furnish the hereditary
princes who have lost possessions upon the left bank of the
Rhine an indemnity within the empire according to such
arrangements as shall be determined later in accordance
with the stipulations here made. . . .

XI. The present treaty of peace, ... is declared to be
common to the Batavian, Helvetian, Cisalpine, and Ligurian
republics. The contracting parties mutually guarantee the
independence of the said republics and the freedom of the
inhabitants of the said countries to adopt such form of
government as they shall see fit.

XII. His Majesty the emperor and king renounces for
himself and for his successors in favor of the Cisalpine
republic all rights and titles depending upon such rights,
which his Majesty might assert over the territories in Italy
which he possessed before the war and which, according to
the terms of Article VIII of the Treaty of Campo-Formio,
now form a part of the Cisalpine republic. . . .

XIX. The present treaty shall be ratified by his Majesty
the emperor and king, the empire, and the French republic
within a period of thirty days, or sooner, if possible, and it
is further understood that the armies of the two powers
shall remain in their present positions, both in Germany

Dispossessed
German
rulers to be
indemnified
within the
empire.

New states
to be in-
cluded in
the treaty.

Cisalpine

republic.

486

Readings in European History

429. Bona-
parte’s man-
ners when
First Consul.

and Italy, until the said ratifications of the emperor and
king, of the empire, and of the French republic shall have
been simultaneously exchanged at Luneville between the
respective plenipotentiaries. It is also agreed that within
ten days after the exchange of the said ratifications the
armies of his imperial and royal majesty shall be withdrawn
into his hereditary possessions, which shall be evacuated
within the same space of time by the French armies ; and
within thirty days after the said exchange the French
armies shall have completely evacuated the territory of the
said empire.

Done and signed at Luneville, February 9, 1801 (the
20th Pluviose of the year nine of the French republic).

(Signed) Louis, Count of Cobenzl.

Joseph Bonaparte.

V. Personal Characteristics of General Bonaparte

The son of Madame de Remusat thus recalls how,
when a little boy, he caught a glimpse of the First
Consul ;

One day my mother came for me (I think she had
accompanied Madame Bonaparte into the court of the
Tuileries) and took me up a staircase full of soldiers, at
whom I stared hard. One of them who was coming down
spoke to her; he wore an infantry uniform. “Who was
that ? ” I asked, when he had passed. It was Louis Bona-
parte. Then I saw a young man going upstairs in the well-
known uniform of the [corps known as the] guides. His
name I did not need to ask. Children in those days knew
the insignia of every rank and corps in the army, and who
did not know that Eugene Beauharnais was colonel of the
guides ?

At last we reached Madame Bonaparte’s drawing-room.
At first there was no one there but herself, one or two
ladies, and my father, wearing his red coat embroidered in

Napoleo7i Bonaparte

487

silver. I was probably kissed — or, perhaps they thought
me grown ; then no one noticed me any further. Soon an
officer of the consul’s guard entered. He was short, thin,
and carried himself badly, or at least carelessly. I was
sufficiently drilled in etiquette to observe that he moved
about a great deal and made rather free. Among other
things I was surprised to see him sit on the arm of a chair.
From thence he spoke across a considerable distance to my
mother. We were in front of him, and I remarked his thin,
almost wan face, with its brown and yellowish tints. We
drew near to him while he spoke. When I was within his
reach he noticed me ; he took me by my two ears and
pulled them rather roughly. He hurt me, and had I not
been in a palace I should have cried. Then turning to my
father, he said, “ Is he learning mathematics ? ” Soon I was
taken away. “ Who is that soldier ? ” I asked my mother.
“That soldier is the First Consul.”

Bonaparte’s disregard of others and his insolent atti-
tude toward those who served him are seen in the follow-
ing incident reported by Madame de Remusat.

Bonaparte dictated with great ease. He never wrote
anything with his own hand. His handwriting was bad
and as illegible to himself as to others ; and his spelling
was very defective. He utterly lacked patience to do any-
thing whatever with his own hands. The extreme activity
of his mind and the habitual prompt obedience rendered
to him prevented him from practicing any occupation in
which the mind must necessarily wait for the action of the
body. Those who wrote from his dictation — first Monsieur
Bourrienne, then Monsieur Maret, and Meneval, his private
secretary — had made a shorthand for themselves in order
that their pens might travel as fast as his thoughts.

He dictated while walking to and fro in his cabinet.
When he grew angry he would use violent imprecations,
which were suppressed in writing and which had, at least,
the advantage of giving the writer time to catch up with

Careless de-
portment of
Bonaparte.

429a. How
Bonaparte
made others
uncom-
fortable.

488

Readings in European History

Bonaparte’s
conviction
that zeal
depends upon
disquietude.

429b. How
Bonaparte
won the
hearts of his
soldiers.
(From
Madame de
Remusat’s
Memoirs.)

him. He never repeated anything that he had once said,
even if it had not been heard ; and this was very hard on
the poor secretary, for Bonaparte remembered accurately
what he had said and detected every omission.

One day he read a tragedy in manuscript, and it inter-
ested him sufficiently to inspire him with a fancy to make
some alterations in it. “ Take a pen and paper,” said he to
Monsieur de Remusat, “and write for me.” Hardly giving
my husband time to seat himself at a table, he began to
dictate so quickly that Monsieur de Remusat, although
accustomed to write with great rapidity, was bathed in
perspiration while trying to follow him. Bonaparte per-
ceived his difficulty, and would stop now and then to say,
“ Come, try to understand me, for I will not repeat what
I say.”

He always derived amusement from causing any one un-
easiness and distress. His great general principle, which he
applied to everything, both great and small, was that there
could be no zeal where there was no disquietude. Fortunately
he forgot to ask for the sheet of observations he had dic-
tated. Monsieur de Remusat and I have often tried to read it
since, but we have never been able to make out a word of it.

Bonaparte might freely tease his attendants and secre-
taries, but, in his early days at least, he took great pains
to win the hearts of his soldiers.

Bonaparte’s reception by the troops was nothing short
of rapturous. It was well worth seeing how he talked to
the soldiers, — how he questioned them one after the other
respecting their campaigns or their wounds, taking par-
ticular interest in the men who had accompanied him to
Egypt. I have heard Madame Bonaparte say that her hus-
band was in the constant habit of poring over the list of
what are called the cadres of the army at night before he
slept. He would go to sleep repeating the names of the
corps, and even those of some of the individuals who com-
posed them ; he kept these names in a corner of his memory,

Napoleon Bonaparte

489

and this habit came to his aid when he wanted to recognize
a soldier and to give him the pleasure of a cheering word
from his general. He spoke to the subalterns in a tone of
good-fellowship, which delighted them all, as he reminded
them of their common feats of arms.

Afterwards when his armies became so numerous and his
battles so deadly, he disdained to exercise this kind of fas-
cination. Besides, death had extinguished so many remem-
brances that in a few years it became difficult for him
to find any great number of the companions of his early
exploits ; and when he addressed his soldiers before lead-
ing them into battle, it was as a perpetually renewed pos-
terity to which the preceding and destroyed army had
bequeathed its glory. But even this somber style of en-
couragement availed for a long time with a nation which
believed itself to be fulfilling its destiny while sending its
sons year after year to die for Bonaparte.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Youth of Bonaparte : Fournier, Napoleon, Chaps. I and II, pp. 1-37. A. Refer-

First Italian Campaign: Fournier, ChapterV,pp. 72-110; Fyffe, ences.
History of Modern Europe, Chapter III, pp. 74-103.

The Egyptian Expedition : Fournier, Chapter VI, pp. 111-153.

Overthrow of the Directory and Establishment of the Consulate :
Fournier, Chapter VII, pp. 154-187 ; Fyffe, Chapter IV, pp. 104-144.

[For the general bibliography of the Napoleonic period, see close of
the following chapter.]

CHAPTER XXXVIII

430. Why
the French
people sub-
mitted to
Bonaparte’s
rule.

EUROPE AND NAPOLEON

I. General Bonaparte becomes Emperor Napoleon I :
HIS Early Reforms in France

Madame de Remusat suggests the following reasons
why the French people so readily subjected themselves
to the despotism of Napoleon.

I can understand how it was that men worn out by the
turmoil of the Revolution, and afraid of that liberty which
had long been associated with death, looked for repose
under the dominion of an able ruler on whom fortune was
seemingly resolved to smile. I can conceive that they re-
garded his elevation as a decree of destiny and fondly
believed that in the irrevocable they should find peace. I
may confidently assert that those persons believed quite
sincerely that Bonaparte, whether as consul or emperor,
would exert his authority to oppose the intrigues of faction
and would save us from the perils of anarchy.

None dared to utter the word “republic,” so deeply had
the Terror stained that name; and the government of the
Directory had perished in the contempt with which its chiefs
were regarded. The return of the Bourbons could only be
brought about by the aid of a revolution ; and the slightest
disturbance terrified the French people, in whom enthusiasm
of every kind seemed dead. Besides, the men in whom they
had trusted had one after the other deceived them ; and
as, this time, they were yielding to force, they were at least
certain that they were not deceiving themselves.

The belief, or rather the error, that only despotism could
at that epoch maintain order in France was very widespread.

490

491

.. ^ T^'upoleon

It became the mainstay of Bonaparte ; and it is due to him
to say that he also believed it. The factions played into his
hands by imprudent attempts which he turned to his own
advantage. He had some grounds for his belief that he
was necessary; France believed it, too; and he even suc-
ceeded in persuading foreign sovereigns that he constituted
a barrier against republican influences, which, but for him,
might spread widely. At the moment when Bonaparte
placed the imperial crown upon his head there was not
a king in Europe who did not believe that he wore his own
crown more securely because of that event. Had the new
emperor granted a liberal constitution, the peace of nations
and of kings might really have been forever secured.

Five years after Bonaparte had become the head of
the French government he sums up the general situa-
tion in France in a statement which he laid before the
Legislative Body, December 31, 1804.

The internal situation of France is to-day as calm as it
has ever been in the most peaceful periods. There is no
agitation to disturb the public tranquillity, no suggestion
of those crimes which recall the Revolution. Everywhere
useful enterprises are in progress, and the general improve-
ments, both public and private, attest the universal con-
fidence and sense of security. . . .

A plot conceived by an implacable government was
about to replunge France into the abyss of civil war and
anarchy. The discovery of this horrible crime stirred all
France profoundly, and anxieties that had scarcely been
calmed again awoke. Experience has taught that a divided
power in the state is impotent and at odds with itself. It was
generally felt that if power was delegated for short periods
only it was so uncertain as to discourage any prolonged
undertakings or wide-reaching plans. If vested in an indi-
vidual for life, it would lapse with him, and after him would
prove a source of anarchy and discord. It was clearly seen
that for a great nation the only salvation lies in hereditary

431. Napo-
leon’s ac-
count of the
internal
situation of
France in
1804. (Much
condensed.)

Reasons for
establishing
an empire
in place
of the
consulate.

Coronation
of Napoleon
by the pope.

492 Readings hi \L.urope an Histo7j

power, which can alone assure a continuous political life
which may endure for generations, even for centuries.

The Senate, as was proper, served as the organ through
which this general apprehension found expression. The
necessity of hereditary power in a state as vast as France
had long been perceived by the First Consul. He had
endeavored in vain to avoid this conclusion ; but the public
solicitude and the hopes of our enemies emphasized the
importance of his task, and he realized that his death
might ruin his whole work. Under such circumstances,
and with such a pressure of public opinion, there was no
alternative left to the First Consul. He resolved, therefore,
to accept for himself, and two of his brothers after him,
the burden imposed by the exigencies of the situation.

After prolonged consideration, repeated conferences with
the members of the Senate, discussion in the councils, and
the suggestions of the most prudent advisers, a series of
provisions was drawn up which regulate the succession
to the imperial throne. These provisions were decreed by
a senatus cojisidtus of the 28th Flore al last. The French
people, by a free and independent expression, then mani-
fested its desire that the imperial dignity should pass down
in a direct line through the legitimate or adopted descend-
ants of Napoleon Bonaparte, or through the legitimate de-
scendants of Joseph Bonaparte, or of Louis Bonaparte.

From this moment Napoleon was, by the most unques-
tionable of titles, emperor of the French. No other act
was necessary to sanction his right and consecrate his
authority. But he wished to restore in France the ancient
forms and recall those institutions which divinity itself
seems to have inspired. He wished to impress the seal of
religion itself upon the opening of his reign. The head of
the Church, in order to give the French a striking proof
of his paternal affection, consented to officiate at this august
ceremony. What deep and enduring impressions did this
leave on the mind of Napoleon and in the memory of the
nation ! What thoughts for future races ! What a subject
of wonder for all Europe !

Europe and Napoleon

493

In the midst of this pomp, and under the eye of the
Eternal, Napoleon pronounced the inviolable oath which
assures the integrity of the empire, the security of property,
the perpetuity of institutions, the respect for law, and the
happiness of the nation. The oath of Napoleon shall be
forever the terror of the enemies of France. If our borders
are attacked, it will be repeated at the head of our armies,
and our frontiers shall never more fear foreign invasion.

The principles safeguarded by the coronation oath are
those of our legislation. Hereafter there will be fewer laws
to submit to the Legislative Body. The civil code has
fulfilled the expectations of the public ; all citizens are
acquainted with it ; it serves as their guide in their various
transactions, and is everywhere lauded as a benefaction.
A draft of a criminal code has been completed for two
years and has been subjected to the criticism of the courts ;
at this moment it is being discussed for the last time by
the council of state. The code of procedure and the
commercial code are still where they were a year ago,
for pressing cares have diverted the emperor’s attention
elsewhere.

New schools are being opened, and inspectors have been
appointed to see that the instruction does not degenerate
into vain and sterile examinations. The lycees and the
secondary schools are filling with youth eager for instruc-
tion. The polytechnic school is peopling our arsenals,
ports, and factories with useful citizens. Prizes have been
established in various branches of science, letters, and arts,
and in the period of ten years fixed by his Majesty for the
award of these prizes there can be no doubt that French
genius will produce works of distinction.

The emperor’s decrees have reestablished commerce on
the left bank of the Rhine. Our manufacturers are improv-
ing, although the mercenaries subsidized by the British
government vaunt, in their empty declamations, her foreign
trade and her precarious resources scattered about the seas
and in the Indies, while they describe our shops as deserted
and our artisans as dying of hunger. In spite of this, our

The new
codes.

New schools.

Manu-

factures.

494

Readmgs in European History

432. Impa-
tience of the
soldiers to
invade Eng-
land in
August,
1805. (From
Constant’s
Memoirs.)

industries are striking root in our own soil and are driving
English commerce far from our shores. Our products now
equal theirs and will soon compete with them in all the
markets of the world.

Religion has resumed its sway, but exhibits itself only in
acts of humanity. Adhering to a wise policy of toleration,
the ministers of different sects who worship the same God
do themselves honor by their mutual respect ; and their
rivalry confines itself to emulation in virtue. Such is our
situation at home.

II. Boulogne and Austerlitz

After the rupture of the Peace of Amiens, Napoleon
collected an army at Boulogne with the declared pur-
pose of making a descent upon England. After some
months of preparation and waiting, the soldiers became
very impatient to attempt the undertaking, in spite of
the many difficulties which had become apparent.

Soldiers and sailors were burning with impatience to
embark for England, but the moment so ardently desired
was still delayed. Every evening they said to themselves,
“ To-morrow there will be a good wind, there will also be a
fog, and we shall start.” They lay down with that hope, but
arose each day to find either an unclouded sky or rain.

One evening, however, when a favorable wind was blow-
ing, I heard two sailors conversing together on the wharf
and making conjectures as to the future. “The emperor
would do well to start to-morrow morning,” said one.
“ He will never have better weather and there will surely
be a fog.” “Yes,” said the other, “only he does not think
so. We have now waited more than fifteen days, and the
fleet has not budged. However, all the ammunition is on
board, and with one blast of the whistle we can put to sea.”

The night sentinels came on, and the conversation of the
old sea wolves stopped there. But I soon had to acknowl-
edge that their nautical experience had not deceived

Europe and Napoleon

495

them. In fact, by three o’clock in the morning a light fog
was spread over the sea, which was somewhat stormy ; the
wind of the evening before began to blow again, and at
daylight the fog was so thick as to conceal the fleet from
the English, while the most profound silence reigned every-
where. No hostile sails had been signaled through the
night, and, as the sailors had predicted, everything favored
the descent. At five o’clock in the morning signals were
made from the semaphore, and in the twinkling of an
eye all the sailors were in motion and the ports resounded
with cries of joy, for the order to depart had just been
received.

While the sails were being hoisted the long roll was
beaten in the four camps, and the order was given for the
entire army to take arms. They marched rapidly into
the town, hardly believing what they had just heard. “We
are really going to start,” said all the soldiers; “we are
actually going to say a few words to those Englishmen
and the joy which animated them burst forth in acclama-
tions which were silenced by a roll of the drums. The
embarkation then took place amid profound silence, and
in such perfect order that I can scarcely give an idea of it.
At seven o’clock two hundred soldiers were on board the
fleet ; and when a little after midday this fine army was on
the point of starting, amidst the adieus and good wishes of
the whole city, assembled upon the walls and upon the sur-
rounding cliffs, and at the very moment when all the sol-
diers, standing with uncovered heads, were about to bid
farewell to the soil of France, crying, “Vive I’empereur ! ”
a message arrived from the imperial barracks ordering the
troops to disembark and return to camp. A telegraphic
dispatch just received by his Majesty announced that it
was necessary that he should move his troops in another
direction ; and the soldiers returned sadly to their quar-
ters, some expressing in loud tones and in a very energetic
manner the disappointment which this species of mystifica-
tion caused them. They had always regarded the success
of the enterprise against England as assured, and to find

433. Napo-
leon’s procla-
mation to
his soldiers
after

Austerlitz.

496 Readings in European History

themselves stopped on the eve of departure was, in their
eyes, the greatest misfortune which could happen to them.

When order had again been restored the emperor re-
paired to the camp of the right wing and made a procla-
mation to the troops, which was sent into the other camps,
and posted everywhere. This was approximately the tenor
of it : “ Brave soldiers of the camp of Boulogne, you will
not go to England. English gold has seduced the emperor
of Austria, who has just declared war against France. His
army has just passed the Rhine, which he should have
respected, and Bavaria is invaded. Soldiers, new victories
await you beyond the Rhine. Let us hasten to defeat once
more the enemies whom you have already conquered.”
This proclamation called forth unanimous acclamations
of joy, and every face brightened, for it mattered little to
these intrepid men whether they were led against Austria
or England ; they simply thirsted for the fray, and now
that war had been declared every desire was gratified.

Thus vanished all those grand projects of descent upon
England which had been so long matured, so wisely planned.

After breaking camp at Boulogne, Napoleon hurried
into Germany. He surrounded and captured the Aus-
trian army at Ulm in October. Six weeks later he
defeated the combined forces of the Austrians and Rus-
sians in the memorable battle of Austerlitz. After this
victory he issued the following proclamation.

Soldiers, I am satisfied with you. In the battle of
Austerlitz you have justified what I expected from your
intrepidity. You have covered yourselves with eternal
glory. An army of one hundred thousand men which was
commanded by the emperors of Russia and Austria has
been in less than four hours either cut off or dispersed.
Those that escaped your swords have thrown themselves
into the lakes. Forty stands of colors, the stands of the
Russian imperial guard, one hundred and twenty pieces of

Europe and Napoleon 497

cannon, twenty generals, and above thirty thousand pris-
oners are the fruits of this ever-memorable battle. Their
infantry, so celebrated and so superior to you in numbers,
has proved unable to resist your charge, and henceforth
you have no rivals to fear.

Thus in less than two months the third coalition is con-
quered and dissolved. Peace cannot be far off ; but, as I
promised my people before crossing the Rhine, I will con-
clude it only upon terms consistent with my pledge, which
shall secure not only the indemnification, but the reward,
of my allies.

Soldiers, when the French people placed the imperial
crown upon my head I trusted to you to enable me to main-
tain it in that splendor of glory which could alone give it
value in my estimation. But at that moment our enemies
entertained the design of tarnishing and degrading it ; and
the iron crown, which was gained by the blood of so many
Frenchmen, they would have compelled me to place on the
head of my bitterest foe,- — an extravagant and foolish pro-
posal, which you have brought to naught on the anniversary
of your emperor’s coronation. You have taught them that it
is easier for them to defy and to threaten than to subdue us.

Soldiers, when everything necessary to the security, the
happiness, and the prosperity of our country has been
achieved, I will return you my thanks in France. Then
will you be the objects of my ten.derest care. My people
will receive you with rapture and joy. To say to me, “ I
was in the battle of Austerlitz,” will be enough to authorize
the reply, “That is a brave man.”

Napoleon.

Headquarters at Austerlitz,

December 3, 1805.

III. Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire

In no country of Europe were the effects of Napo-
leon’s policy more striking and permanent than in Ger-
many. The cession of the left bank of the Rhine to

Napoleon’s
policy in
Germany.

498 Readings in European History

France by the Treaty of Luneville (1801) brought with
it a complete reconstruction of the remainder of Ger-
many, since the dispossessed princes were to be indem-
nified with lands within the empire. Accordingly the
ecclesiastical states and the free imperial towns, once so
important among the German states, were, with a few
exceptions, incorporated into the territories of neighbor-
ing secular princes by the great Imperial Recess of
1803. The little holdings of the knights were quietly
absorbed by the new “sovereigns” within whose terri-
tories they happened to lie. The map of Germany was
thus much simplified, and the ancient and hopeless sub-
division of Germany greatly diminished.

Napoleon had no desire to unify Germany, but wished
to have several independent states, or groups of states,
which he could conveniently bring under his control.
Consequently, when it came to arranging the Treaty of
Pressburg after his great victory at Austerlitz, Napoleon
forced the defeated emperor to recognize the rulers of
Wiirtemberg and Bavaria as “ kings ” and the elector
of Baden as enjoying “ the plenitude of sovereignty.” In
short, he proposed that the three most important princes
of southern Germany should be as independent as the
king of Prussia or the emperor himself, and that, more-
over, they should owe their elevation to him. He then
formed a union of these new sovereigns and of other Ger-
man rulers, which was called the Confederation of the
Rhine. In the rather insolent message given below he
informs the diet of the empire that the new union, of
which he is to be the protector, will be incompatible
with the continued existence of the venerable Holy
Roman Empire.

Europe a7td Napoleon

499

The undersigned, charge d'affaires of his Majesty the
emperor of the French and king of Italy, at the general
diet of the German empire, has received orders from his
Majesty to make the following declarations to the diet :

Their Majesties the kings of Bavaria and of Wiirtem-
berg, the sovereign princes of Ratisbon, Baden, Burg,
Hesse-Darmstadt, and Nassau, as well as the other leading
princes^ of the south and west of Germany, have resolved
to form a confederation between themselves which shall
secure them against future contingencies, and have thus
ceased to be states of the empire.

The position in which the Treaty of Pressburg has ex-
plicitly placed the courts allied to France, and indirectly
those princes whose territory they border or surround,
being incompatible with the existence of an empire, it
becomes a necessity for those rulers to reorganize their
relations upon a new system and to remove a contradic-
tion which could not fail to be a permanent source of agi-
tation, disquiet, and danger.

France, on the other hand, is directly interested in the
maintenance of peace in southern Germany and yet must
apprehend that the moment she shall cause her troops to
recross the Rhine discord, the inevitable consequence of
contradictory, uncertain, and ill-defined conditions, will
again disturb the peace of the people and reopen, possibly,
the war on the continent. Feeling it incumbent upon her
to advance the welfare of her allies and to assure them the
enjoyment of all the advantages which the Treaty of Press-
burg secures to them and to which she is pledged, France
cannot but regard the confederation which they have
formed as a natural result and a necessary sequel to that
treaty.

For a long period successive changes have, from century
to century, reduced the German constitution to a shadow
of its former self. Time has altered all the relations, in

1 The confederation was joined from time to time by many more
German states.

434. Napo-
leon informs
the German
diet of the
formation
of the Con-
federation of
the Rhine
(August I,
i8o6).

Sad decline
of the Holy
Roman
Empire

500

Readmgs hi European History

respect to size and importance, which originally existed
among the various members of the confederation, both as
regards each other and the whole of which they have formed
a part.

The diet has no longer a will of its own ; the sentences
of the superior courts can no longer be executed ; every-
thing indicates such serious weakness that the federal bond
no longer offers any protection whatever and only consti-
tutes a source of dissension and discord between the powers.
The results of three coalitions have increased this weak-
ness to the last degree. . . . The Treaty of Pressburg
assures complete sovereignty to their Majesties the kings
of Bavaria and of Wiirtemberg and to his Highness the
elector of Baden. This is a prerogative which the other
electors will doubtless demand, and which they are justi-
fied in demanding ; but this is in harmony neither with the
letter nor the spirit of the constitution of the empire.

His Majesty the emperor and king is, therefore, com-
pelled to declare that he can no longer acknowledge the
existence of the German constitution, recognizing, how-
ever, the entire and absolute sovereignty of each of the
princes whose states compose Germany to-day, maintain-
ing with them the same relations as with the other inde-
pendent powers of Europe.

His Majesty the emperor and king has accepted the title
of Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. He has
done this only with a view to peace and in order that by
his constant mediation between the weak and the powerful
he may obviate every species of dissension and disorder.

Having thus provided for the dearest interests of his
people and of his neighbors, and having assured, so far as
in him lay, the future peace of Europe, and that of Germany
in particular, heretofore constantly the theater of war, by
removing a contradiction which placed people and princes
alike under the delusive protection of a system contrary
both to their political interests and to their treaties, his
Majesty the emperor and king trusts that the nations of
Europe will at last close their ears to the insinuations of

Europe and Napoleon . 501

those who would maintain an eternal war upon the conti-
nent. He trusts that the French armies which have crossed
the Rhine have done so for the last time, and that the peo-
ple of Germany will no longer witness, except in the annals
of the past, the horrible pictures of disorder, devastation,
and slaughter which war invariably brings with it.

His Majesty declared that he would never extend the
limits of France beyond the Rhine and he has been faith-
ful to his promise. At present his sole desire is so to
employ the means which Providence has confided to him
as to free the seas, restore the liberty of commerce, and
thus assure the peace and happiness of the world.

Ratisbon, August I, 1806. Bacher.

After the Treaty of Pressburg and the formation of
the Confederation of the Rhine there was really nothing
for the emperor to do except to lay down — which he
did with* some relief— -the imperial crown which had
belonged to his house with few intermissions since the
times of Rudolf of Hapsburg.

We, Francis the Second, by the grace of God Roman emperor
elect, ever august, hereditary emperor of Austria, etc., king
of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Sla-
vonia, Galicia, Lodomeria, a7id ferusalem; archduke of
Austria, etc.

Since the Peace of Pressburg all our care and attention
has been directed towards the scrupulous fulfillment of all
engagements contracted by the said treaty, as well as the
preservation of peace, so essential to the happiness of our
subjects, and the strengthening in every way of the friendly
relations which have been happily reestablished. We could
but await the outcome of events in order to determine
whether the important changes in the German empire re-
sulting from the terms of the peace would allow us to
fulfill the weighty duties which, in view of the conditions
of our election, devolve upon us as the head of the empire.

435. The

abdication

of the last

Roman

'emperor

(August 6,

1806).

502

. Readings in European History

But the results of certain articles of the Treaty of Press-
burg, which showed themselves immediately after its pub-
lication and since that time, as well as the events which,
as is generally known, have taken place in the German
empire, have convinced us that it would be impossible
under these circumstances further to fulfill the duties
which we assumed by the conditions of our election.
Even if the prompt readjustment of existing political com-
plications might produce an alteration in the existing con-
ditions, the convention signed at Paris, July 12, and
approved later by the contracting parties, providing for
the complete separation of several important states of the
empire and their union into a separate confederation,
would utterly destroy any such hope.

Thus convinced of the utter impossibility of longer ful-
filling the duties of our imperial office, we owe it to our
principles and to our honor to renounce a crown which
could only retain any value in our eyes so long as we were
in a position to justify the confidence reposed in us by the
electors, princes, estates, and other members of the German
empire, and to fulfill the duties devolving upon us.

We proclaim, accordingly, that we consider the ties which
have hitherto united us to the body politic of the German
empire as hereby dissolved ; that we regard the office and
dignity of the imperial headship as extinguished by the
formation of a separate union of the Rhenish states, and
regard ourselves as thereby freed from all our obligations
toward the German empire ; herewith laying down the
imperial crown which is associated with these obligations,
and relinquishing the imperial government which we have
hitherto conducted.

We free at the same time the electors, princes, and
estates, and all others belonging to the empire, particularly
the members of the supreme imperial courts and other
magistrates of the empire, from the duties constitutionally
due to us, as the lawful head of the empire. Conversely, we
free all our German provinces and imperial lands from all
their obligations of whatever kind toward the German

Europe and Napoleon

503

empire. In uniting these, as emperor of Austria, with the
whole body of the Austrian state we shall strive, with the
restored and existing peaceful relations with all the powers
and neighboring states, to raise them to the height of pros-
perity and happiness which is our keenest desire and the
aim of our constant and sincerest efforts.

Done at our capital and royal residence, Vienna, Aug-
ust 6, 1806, in the fifteenth year of our reign as emperor
and hereditary ruler of the Austrian lands.

Francis.

lY. The Continental Blockade

At least as early as 1796 the French government con-
ceived the idea of forcing its English enemy to cry for
peace by ruining her commerce. This became a cher-
ished policy of Napoleon after he had given up the idea
of invading England. After his victory at Jena he felt
that the time had come to put into execution his project
of excluding England from the continent. England had
given him an excuse for the Berlin Decree given below
by declaring the coast from the river Elbe to Brest in
a state of blockade (May, 1806).

From our Imperial Camp at Berlin,
November 21, 1806.

Napoleon, emperor of the French and king of Italy, in
consideration of the facts :

1. That England does not recognize the system of inter-
national law universally observed by all civilized nations.

2. That she regards as an enemy every individual belong-
ing to the enemy’s state, and consequently makes prisoners
of war not only of the crews of armed ships of war but of
the crews of ships of commerce and merchantmen, and
even of commercial agents and of merchants traveling on
business.

436. The

Berlin

Decree

(November

21, 1806).

(Extracts.)

504 Readings in European History

3. That she extends to the vessels and commercial wares,
and to the property of individuals, the right of conquest
which is applicable only to the possessions of the belligerent
power.

4. That she extends to unfortified towns and commercial
ports, to harbors and the mouths of rivers, the right of
blockade, which, in accordance with reason and the cus-
toms of all civilized nations, is applicable only to strong
places. . . . That she has declared districts in a state of
blockade which all her united forces would be unable to
blockade, such as entire coasts and the whole of an
empire.

5. That this monstrous abuse of the right of blockade
has no other aim than to prevent communication among
the nations and to raise the commerce and the industry of
England upon the ruins of that of the continent.

8. That it is a natural right to employ such arms against
an enemy as he himself makes use of, and to combat in
the same way as he combats. Since England has disre-
garded all ideas of justice and every high sentiment implied
by civilization among mankind, we have resolved to apply
to her the usages which she has ratified in her maritime
legislation.

The provisions of the present decree shall continue to
be looked upon as embodying the fundamental principles
of the empire until England shall recognize that the law of
war is one and the same on land and on sea, and that the
rights of war cannot be extended so as to include private
property of any kind or the persons of individuals uncon-
nected with the profession of arms, and that the right of
blockade shall be restricted to fortified places actually
invested by sufficient forces.

We have consequently decreed and do decree that which
follows.

Article I. The British Isles are declared to be in a state
of blockade.

II. All commerce and all correspondence with the Brit-
ish Isles is forbidden. Consequently, letters or packages

Europe and Napoleon

505

directed to England, or to an Englishman, or written in
the English language, shall not pass through the mails and
shall be seized.

III. Every individual who is an English subject, of what-
ever state or condition he may be, who shall be discovered
in any country occupied by our troops or by those of our
allies, shall be made a prisoner of war.

IV. All warehouses, merchandise, or property of what-
ever kind belonging to a subject of England shall be re-
garded as a lawful prize.

V. Trade in English goods is prohibited, and all goods
belonging to England or coming from her factories or her
colonies are declared a lawful prize,

VII, No vessel coming directly from England or from the
English colonies, or which shall have visited these since the
publication of the present decree, shall be received in any
port.

VIII. Any vessel contravening the above provision by a
false declaration shall be seized, and the vessel and cargo
shall be confiscated as if it were English property.

X. The present decree shall be communicated by our
minister of foreign affairs to the kings of Spain, of Naples,
of Holland, and of Etruria, and to our other allies whose
subjects, like ours, are the victims of the unjust and bar-
barous maritime legislation of England,

(Signed)

Napoleon.

On November ii, 1807, after news of the Treaty of
Tilsit had reached the English government, it replied by
an order in council establishing an undisguised “paper”
blockade. This, in spite of some alleged merciful excep-
tions, was almost a prohibition of neutral trading such
as that carried on by the United States, and President
Jefferson ordered the first embargo, December 22, 1807,
as a retaliatory measure. Napoleon replied to England’s
measures by issuing his brief and cogent Milan Decree.

5o6

Readings in Europea?t History

437. The
Milan

Decree (De-
cember 17,
1807).

At our Royal Palace at Milan, December 17, 1807.

Napoleon, emperor of the French, king of Italy, protector
of the Confederation of the Rhine. In view of the measures
adopted by the British government on the i ith of November
last, by which vessels belonging to powers which are neutral,
or are friendly to, and even allied with, England, are ren-
dered liable to be searched by British cruisers, detained at
certain stations in England, and subject to an arbitrary tax
of a certain per cent upon their cargo, to be regulated by
English legislation ^ :

Considering that by these acts the English government
has denationalized the vessels of all the nations of Europe,
and that no government may compromise in any degree its
independence or its rights by submitting to such demands,
— all the rulers of Europe being jointly responsible for the
sovereignty and independence of their flags, — and that, if
through unpardonable weakness, which would be regarded
by posterity as an indelible stain, such tyranny should be
admitted and become consecrated by custom, the English
would take steps to give it the force of law, as they have
already taken advantage of the toleration of the governments
to establish the infamous principle that the flag does not
cover the goods, and to give the right of blockade an arbi-
trary extension which threatens the sovereignty of every state:

1 The tax imposed by England upon the cargoes of neutral ships,
which is referred to in the Milan Decree, is not found in the orders of
November ii, as Napoleon implies. The tax was, however, a stern
reality, whatever may have been its formal origin. Professor McMaster
gives an account of the practical workings of the system, so far as
American ships were concerned, which he takes from the Baltimore
Evening Post of September 2 and 27, 1808. The newspaper estimates
that on her outward voyage, let us say to Holland, with four hundred
hogsheads of tobacco, an American ship would pay England one and
one-half pence per pound on the tobacco and twelve shillings for each
ton of the ship. With ^100 for the license and sundry other dues, the
total amounted to toward ^13,000. On the home voyage, with a cargo,
let us say, of Holland gin, the American trader paid perhaps ^16,500,
making the total charges paid to Great Britain for a single voyage
$31,000 {^History of the People of the United States, Vol. Ill, pp. 308-309)-

Europe and Napoleon 507

We have decreed and do decree as follows :

Article I. Every vessel, of whatever nationality, which
shall submit to be searched by an English vessel, or shall
consent to a voyage to England, or shall pay any tax what-
ever to the English government, is ipso facto declared dena-
tionalized, loses the protection afforded by its flag, and be-
comes English property.

II. Should these vessels which are thus denationalized
through the arbitrary measures of the English government
enter our ports or those of our allies, or fall into the hands
of our ships of war or of our privateers, they shall be re-
garded as good and lawful prizes.

III. The British Isles are proclaimed to be in a state of
blockade both by land and by sea. Every vessel, of what-
ever nation or whatever may be its cargo, that sails from
the ports of England, or from those of the English colonies,
or of countries occupied by English troops, or destined for
England, or for any of the English colonies, or any country
occupied by English troops, becomes, by violating the pres-
ent decree, a lawful prize, and may be captured by our ships
of war and adjudged to the captor. . . .

Pasquier, in his Memoirs^ makes the following admir-
able criticism of Napoleon’s continental system.

[Napoleon’s unwise severity after the battle of Jena] was
nothing compared to a measure adopted in the hour of intox-
ication of victory, and which, by erecting an insurmountable
barrier, so to speak, between France and England, condemned
each of these two powers to entertain no hopes of peace and
rest until its rival was completely destroyed. . . .

Napoleon flattered himself with the idea of having found
the means to deal a blow at his most deadly opponent in
the matter nearest his heart. Seeing himself master of the
greater part of the European coast, or at least enjoying a
domination over the mouths of the principal rivers of Ger-
many, he persuaded himself that it depended on him to
close all Europe’s markets to England and thus compel her

438. A con-
temporary’s
criticism of
Napoleon’s
continental
system.

508 Readings in European History

to accept peace from him at his own terms. The conception
was no doubt a grand one, and the measure was no more
iniquitous than that of England, but the difference lay in the
fact that the latter, in her pretensions to a blockade, was not
undertaking anything beyond her strength, and did not stand
in need of any other nation’s cooperation to carry it out.

France, on the contrary, was entering upon an undertak-
ing which could not be put into execution without the volun-
tary or enforced cooperation of all the European powers. It
was therefore sufficient in order to render it fruitless — and
the future went to prove this — that a single one of these
powers, unable to submit to the privations imposed upon it,
should either announce its firm determination not to lend a
hand in the matter, or should be content with finding ways
of eluding it. . . .

Not only was England in a position to supply the conti-
nent with the numerous products of her industry, but she
also controlled almost the entirety of all colonial wares and
provisions. Hence it would become necessary, in the first
place, to have recourse to all possible means calculated to
make continental industry supply that which English indus-
try would no longer furnish. In the second place, with
regard to colonial products, some of which, such as sugar
and coffee, were almost .indispensable necessaries of life,
and others of which were the actual raw material on which
depended the manufactures which it was proposed to create,
it was necessary to devise a means for allowing them the
right of entry, but in a proportion calculated on the strictest
necessity, and, if possible, by means of an exchange favor-
able to the natural products of the continent.

So it happened that through the most persevering and at
times the most ingenious efforts, by the aid of a succession
of decrees, and with the help of that strange invention of
licenses which were nothing but organized smuggling, conti-
nental industry, or rather French industry, backed up with a
million bayonets and with an auxiliary force of coast guards,
succeeded in meeting a tremendous competition and in deriv-
ing large profits.

Etirope and Napoleon 5^9

V. Napoleon at the Zenith

Napoleon found no difficulty in discovering divine
sanction for his power. A catechism drawn up during
the reign of Louis XIV by the distinguished French
prelate, Bossuet, was hunted up and certain modifica-
tions made to adapt it to the times. The following ques-
tions and answers deal with the duties of French citizens
towards their ruler.

Question. What are the duties of Christians toward those
who govern them, and what in particular are our duties
towards Napoleon I, our emperor?

Answer. Christians owe to the princes who govern them,
and we in particular owe to Napoleon I, our emperor, love,
respect, obedience, fidelity, military service, and the taxes
levied for the preservation and defense of the empire and
of his throne. We also owe him fervent prayers for his
safety and for the spiritual and temporal prosperity of
the state.

Question. Why are we subject to all these duties toward
our emperor ?

Answer. First, because God, who has created empires and
distributes them according to his will, has, by loading our
emperor with gifts both in peace and in war, established
him as our sovereign and made him the agent of his power
and his image upon earth. To honor and serve our emperor
is therefore to honor and serve God himself. Secondly,
because our Lord Jesus Christ himself, both by his teaching
and his example, has taught us what we owe to our sover-
eign. Even at his very birth he obeyed the edict of Caesar
Augustus ; he paid the established tax ; and while he com-
manded us to render to God those things which belong to
God, he also commanded us to render unto Caesar those
things which are Caesar’s.

Question. Are there not special motives which should
attach us more closely to Napoleon I, our emperor?

439. Ex-
tracts from
the imperial
catechism
(April, 1806).

Readings in European History

510

Answer. Yes, for it is he whom God has raised up in trying
times to reestablish the public worship of the holy religion
of our fathers and to be its protector ; he has reestablished
and preserved public order by his profound and active
wisdom ; he defends the state by his mighty arm ; he has
become the anointed of the Lord by the consecration which
he has received from the sovereign pontiff, head of the
Church universal.

Question. What must we think of those who are wanting
in their duties toward our emperor ?

Answer. According to the apostle Paul, they are resisting
the order established by God himself and render themselves
worthy of eternal damnation.^

The following extracts will illustrate the attitude of
Napoleon toward his vast empire and the way in which
he undertook to shape the destinies of all western Europe.
Enraged by the refusal of the Spanish nation to accept
his brother as their king, he invaded the peninsula with
a large army, occupied Madrid, and in December, 1808,
he issued the following proclamations.

440. Napo-
leon’s proc-
lamation
to the
Spaniards.

Imperial Camp at Madrid, December 7, 1808.

Spaniards, you have been seduced by perfidious men.
They have involved you in a mad conflict and induced you
to rush to arms. Is there one among you who, if he but
reflect a moment upon all that has taken place, will not be
convinced that you have been the playthings of the invet-
erate enemy of the continent, who rejoices as she beholds
the shedding of Spanish and French blood ? What could be
the result of your success even in several campaigns ? What
but a war without end and prolonged uncertainty in regard
to your possessions and your very existence ? In a few
months you have been subjected to all the horrors of popu-
lar faction. The defeat of your armies was the affair of a
few marches. I have entered Madrid. The right of war

1 Compare Bossuet’s views of the kingship (see above, pp. 272 sqqt).

Eul'ope and Napoleon

511

authorizes me to make a terrible example and to wash out
with blood the outrages committed against me and my
nation. But my only thought is of clemency. A few men
only, the authors of your misery, shall suffer. I will speedily
expel from the peninsula that English army which has been
dispatched to Spain, not to aid you, but to inspire in you a
false confidence and to deceive you.

I informed you in my proclarnation of June 2 that I
wished to be your regenerator. But you have, chosen that I
should add to the rights ceded to me by your previous
dynasty also the right of conquest. But this has not in
any way altered my attitude toward you. Indeed, I must
praise all that has been generous in your efforts. I would
recognize that your true interests have been obscured and
that you have been deceived as to the real condition of
affairs.

Spaniards, your destiny is in my hands. Refuse the poi-
son which the English have spread abroad among you ; let
your king be assured of your love and confidence and you
will be more powerful, more happy than you have ever been.
I have destroyed everything which stands in the way of
your prosperity and greatness. I have broken the fetters
which hampered the people. I have given you a liberal con-
stitution, and, in the place of an absolute, I have given you
a limited and constitutional monarchy. It depends upon
you whether this constitution shall continue to govern you.
But if all my efforts should prove useless and if you do not
respond to my confidence, nothing will remain for me except
to treat you as conquered provinces and to place my brother
upon another throne. I shall then put the crown of Spain
upon my own head and I shall be able to make the wicked
respect it, since God has given me the power and the will
necessary to surmount all obstacles.

Napoleon.

The reforms which Napoleon alludes to had been
issued three days before upon his arrival in Madrid.
They furnish an admirable illustration of the way in

512

Readings in E-uropean History

441. Decrees
abolishing
feudal dues
in Spain.

442. De-
cree abol-
ishing the
Inquisition.

442a. De-
cree abol-
ishing
monastic
orders.

443. Decree
abolishing
the interior
customs
lines.

which the ideas of the French Revolution followed his
armies into the conservative countries of western Europe.

Imperial Camp at Madrid, December 4, 1808.

To date from the publication of the present decree, feudal
rights are abolished in Spain.

All personal obligations, all exclusive fishing rights and
other rights of similar nature on the coast or on rivers and
streams, all feudal monopolies {baiialites) of ovens, mills, and
inns are suppressed. It shall be free to every one who shall
conform to the laws to develop his industry without restraint.

The tribunal of the Inquisition is abolished, as inconsist-
ent with the civil sovereignty and authority.

The propertyof the Inquisition shall be sequestered and fall
to the Spanish state, to serve as security for the bonded debt.

Considering that the members of the various monastic
orders have increased to an undue degree and that, although
a certain number of them are useful in assisting the ministers
of the altar in the administration of the sacraments, the
existence of too great a number interferes with the prosper-
ity of the state, we have decreed and do decree as follows :

The number of convents now in existence in Spain shall
be reduced to a third of their present number. This reduc-
tion shall be accomplished by uniting the members of sev-
eral convents of the same order into one.

From the publication of the present decree, no one shall
be admitted to the novitiate or permitted to take the monas-
tic vow until the number of the religious of both sexes has
been reduced to one th'ird of that now in existence. . . .

All regular ecclesiastics who desire to renounce the
monastic life and live as secular ecclesiastics are at liberty
to leave their monasteries. . . .

In view of the fact that the institution which stands most
in the way of the internal prosperity of Spain is that of the
customs lines separating the provinces, we have decreed and
do decree what follows :

Europe and Napoleon 5 1 3

To date from January i next, the barriers existing between
the provinces shall be suppressed. The custom houses shall
be removed to the frontiers and there established.

In May, 1 809, Napoleon proclaimed that the papal pos-
sessions and the city of Rome were “reunited” to the
French empire. He attempts in the following decree
to justify his conduct upon historical grounds.

Napoleon, emperor of the French, king of Italy, protector
of the Confederation of the Rhine, etc., in consideration of
the fact that when Charlemagne, emperor of the French and
our august predecessor, granted several counties to the bish-
ops of Rome he ceded these only as fiefs and for the good of
his realm, and Rome did not, by reason of this cession, cease
to form a part of his empire ; further, that since this associa-
tion of spiritual and temporal authority has been, and still
is, a source of dissensions, and has but too often led the
pontjffs to employ the influence of the former to maintain
the pretensions of the latter, and thus the spiritual concerns
and heavenly interests, which are unchanging, have been
confused with terrestrial affairs, which by their nature alter
according to circumstances and the policy of the time ; and
since all our proposals for reconciling, the security of our
armies, the tranquillity 'and the welfare of our people, and
the dignity and integrity of our empire, with the temporal
pretensions of the popes have failed, we have decreed and
do decree what follows :

Article i. The papal states are reunited to the French
empire,

2. The city of Rome, so famous by reason of the great
memories which cluster about it and as the first seat of
Christianity, is proclaimed a free imperial city. . . .

In August, 1810, when Napoleon was arranging to
annex Holland and the Hanseatic towns to France, he ad-
dressed the Dutch representatives, who had been induced
to lay their troubles before him, in the following words:

444. Open-
ing of the
decree

“ reuniting ”
the papal
states to the
French
empire
(May 17,
1809).

Readings in European History

445. Napo-
leon’s view
of his
destiny.

446. Napo-
leon’s proc-
lamation at
the opening
of the
Russian
campaign
(June, 1812).

514

. . . When Providence elevated me to the first throne in
the world it became my duty, while establishing forever the
destinies of France, to determine the fate of all those peo-
ple who formed a part of the empire, to insure for all the
benefits of stability and order, and to put an end every-
where to the woes of anarchy. I have done away with the
uncertainty in Italy by placing upon my head the crown of
iron. I have suppressed the government which was ruling
in Piedmont. I have traced out the constitution of Switzer-
land in my Act of Mediation, and I have harmonized the
local conditions of these countries and their historical tra-
ditions with the security and rights of the imperial crown.

I gave you a prince of my own blood to govern you. It
was a natural bond, which should have served to unite the
interests of your administration and the rights of the empire.
My hopes have been disappointed. Under these circum-
stances I have displayed a degree of moderation and long-
suffering which comported but ill with my character and
my rights. Finally, I have but just put an end to the pain-
ful uncertainty in which you found yourselves and to the
death struggle which had ended by destroying your strength
and resources. I have opened the continent to your indus-
try, and the day will come when you shall bear my eagles
upon the seas which your ancestors have rendered illustri-
ous. You will then show yourselves worthy of them and
of me. . . .

VI. The Russian Campaign

Before crossing the Russian boundary in June, 1812,
Napoleon issued the following proclamation to the
Grand Army,

Soldiers, the second war of Poland has commenced. The
first was brought to a close at Friedland and Tilsit. At
Tilsit, Russia swore eternal alliance with France and war with
England. She now violates her -oaths, she refuses to give
any explanation of her strange conduct, except on condition

Eu7'ope and Napoleon 515

that the eagles of France shall repass the Rhine, leaving, by
such a movement, our allies at her mercy. Russia is dragged
along by a fate. Her destinies must be accomplished.
Shall she then consider us degenerate ? Are we no longer
to be looked upon as the soldiers of Austerlitz ? She offers
us the alternative of dishonor or war. The choice does not
admit of hesitation. Let us march forward. Let us pass the
Niemen. Let us carry war into her territory. The second
war of Poland will be as glorious to the French arms as
was the first ; but the peace which we shall conclude will be
its own guaranty and will put an end to that proud and
haughty influence which Russia has for fifty years exercised
in the affairs of Europe.

At our Headquarters at Wilkowiszki,

June, 22, 1812.

Five months later Napoleon was frantically endeav-
oring to regain Poland. An eyewitness thus describes
the crossing of the Beresina, one of the most tragic
episodes in all military history.

On the 25th of November there had been thrown across
the river temporary bridges made of beams taken from the
cabins of the Poles. ... At a little after five in the after-
noon the beams gave way, not being sufficiently strong ;
and as it was necessary to wait until the next day, the army
again abandoned itself to gloomy forebodings. It was evi-
dent that they would have to endure the fire of the enemy
all the next day. But there was no longer any choice ; for
it was only at the end of this night of agony and suffering
of every description that the first beams were secured in the
river. It is hard to comprehend how men could submit to
stand, up to their mouths in water filled with ice, rallying all
the strength which nature had given them, added to all that
the energy of devotion furnished, and drive piles several feet
deep into a miry bed, struggling against the most horrible
fatigue, pushing back with their hands enormous blocks of
ice which threatened to submerge and sink them. . . .

447. The

crossing

of the

Beresina.

(From

Constant’s

Memoirs.)

Readmgs in E2iropean History

Napoleon
overcome
with grief
and despair.

Si6

The emperor awaited daylight in a poor hut, and in the
morning said to Prince Berthier, “ Well, Berthier, how can
we get out of this? ” He was seated in his room, great
tears flowing down his cheeks, which were paler than usual ;
and the prince was seated near him. They exchanged few
words, and the emperor appeared overcome by his grief. I
leave to the imagination what was passing in his soul. . . .

When the artillery and baggage wagons passed, the bridge
was so overweighted that it fell in. Instantly a backward
movement took place, which crowded together all the mul-
titude of stragglers who were advancing in the rear of
the artillery, like a flock being herded. Another bridge had
been constructed, as if the sad thought had occurred that
the first might give way, but the second was narrow and
without a railing ; nevertheless it seemed at first a very val-
uable makeshift in such a calamity. But how disasters fol-
low one upon another ! The stragglers rushed to the second
bridge in crowds. But the artillery, the baggage wagons, — in
a word, all the army supplies, — had been in front on the first
bridge when it broke down. . . . Now, since it was urgent
that the artillery should pass first, it rushed impetuously
toward the only road to safety which remained. No pen
can describe the scene of horror which ensued; for it was
literally over a road of trampled human bodies that convey-
ances of all sorts reached the bridge. On this occasion one
could see how much brutality and cold-blooded ferocity can
be produced in human minds by the instinct of self-preserva-
tion. ... As I have said, the bridge had no railing; and
crowds of those who forced their way across fell into the
river and were engulfed beneath the ice. Others, in their
fall, tried to stop themselves by grasping the planks of the
bridge, and remained suspended over the abyss until, their
hands crushed by the wheels of the vehicles, they lost their
grasp and went to join their comrades as the waves closed
over them Entire caissons with drivers and horses were
precipitated into the water. . . .

Officers harnessed themselves to sleds to carry some
of their companions who were rendered helpless by their

Europe and Napoleon

517

wounds. They wrapped these unfortunates as warmly as
possible, cheered them from time to time with a glass of
brandy when they could procure it, and lavished upon them
the most touching attention. There were many who behaved
in this unselfish manner, of whose names we are ignorant;
and how few returned to enjoy in their own country the
remembrance of the most heroic deeds of their lives !

On the 29th the emperor quitted the banks of the Bere-
sina and we slept at Kamen, where his Majesty occupied a
poor wooden building which the icy air penetrated from all
sides through the windows, for nearly all the glass was
broken. We closed the openings as well as we could with
bundles of hay. A short distance from us, in a large lot,
were penned up the wretched Russian prisoners whom the
army drove before it. I had much difficulty in comprehend-
ing the delusion of victory which our poor soldiers still kept
up by dragging after them this wretched luxury of prisoners,
who could only be an added burden, as they required con-
stant surveillance. When the conquerors are dying of fam-
ine, what becomes of the conquered ? These poor Russians,
exhausted by marches and hunger, nearly all perished that
night. . . .

On the 3d of December we arrived at Malodeczno. Dur-
ing the whole day the emperor appeared thoughtful and
anxious. He had frequent confidential conversations with
the grand equerry. Monsieur de Coulaincourt, and I ex-
pected some extraordinary measure. I was not mistaken in
my conjectures. At two leagues from Smorghoni the duke
of Vicenza summoned me and told me to go on in front and
give orders to have the six best horses harnessed to my car-
riage, which was the lightest of all, and keep them in con-
stant readiness. I reached Smorghoni before the emperor,
who did not arrive until the following night. . . . After sup-
per the emperor ordered prince Eugene to read the twenty-
ninth bulletin and spoke freely of his plans, saying that his
departure was essential in order to send help to the army. . . .

The emperor left in the night. By daybreak the army
had learned the news, and the impression it made cannot be

5i8

Readings in European History

depicted. Discouragement was at its height, and many sol-
diers cursed the emperor and reproached him for abandon-
ing them.

This night, the 6th, the cold increased greatly. Its sever-
ity may be imagined, as birds were found on the ground
frozen stiff. Soldiers seated themselves with their heads in
their hands and bodies bent forward in order thus to feel
less the emptiness of their stomachs. . . . Everything had
failed us. Long before reaching Wilna, the horses being
dead, we received orders to burn our carriages and all their
contents.

VII. The German War of Liberation

The German people, divided as they were into a mul-
titude of little states, had borne apathetically Napoleon’s
dominion for some years. But his insolent conduct after
the victory of Jena began to arouse the national feel-
ing which was later to drive him from German soil and
lay the foundation of a united fatherland. The judicious
Chancellor Pasquier, in his Memoirs, thus describes
Napoleon’s unwarranted treatment of the Prussians.

448. Napo-
leon’s con-
duct after
Jena. (From
Pasquier’s ^
Memoirs.)

Prussia, which for about half a century had advanced
step by step to the first rank among military powers, was
laid low at the first clash of arms. Such of the old generals
of Frederick the Great as still survived — the duke of Bruns-
wick, General Mollendorf, and many others — either lost their
lives on the battlefield of Jena or, as a result of the rout,
the remnants of their former military reputation. Seventeen
days sufficed to place the French army in possession of the
Prussian capital, and the end of November saw it on the
opposite side of the Vistula, after taking Ciistrin, Spandau,
Liibeck, and Magdeburg, — the last named reputed to be the
most strongly fortified town in the Prussian kingdom, — and
occupying all the states belonging to Prussia, with the excep-
tion of Silesia and the fortress of Colberg in Pomerania. . . .

Europe and Napoleon

519

France was no doubt proud of all these victories, and she
wished to reap the fruits of them, the first of which, in her
eyes, was peace, — a glorious, but also a lasting one. Mod-
eration in the hour of triumph could alone insure such a
result, and the French character, which is naturally gener-
ous, indulged in thoughts of a magnanimous use of victory.
So it was that people nourished the illusory idea that the
man who had risen so high could not be deficient in the only
quality which could make his conquests secure. . . .

But no sooner was Napoleon in Berlin than he not only
acted and spoke as an angry conqueror, but affected the
speech and the attitude of a sovereign giving commands
to his subjects. Loyalty to the prince who had fled at his
approach was treated as an act of rebellion, and, in his
indignation against the opposition of a portion of the nobil-
ity which still held communication with the unfortunate king,
he exclaimed, in the very halls of the palace of the great
Frederick, “I will so humble this court nobility that it shall
be reduced to begging its bread.” In his proclamations and
bulletins he constantly coupled threats with insults. Misfor-
tune, which should be sacred, was not even respected in
the person of the queen of Prussia. This conduct was far
from affording any reassuring preliminaries for the peace
so ardently desired.

The disaster of Jena and the humiliation of Tilsit
forced Prussia to try to regain strength and prosperity
through the radical reform of her whole social organiza-
tion. The first step was taken in October, 1807, when
serfdom and certain ancient restrictions on landhold-
ing were abolished. A few paragraphs of this cautious
measure are given below. They are in singular con-
trast to the generous and thoroughgoing, not to say
reckless, provisions of the decree abolishing the feudal
system in France given above. ^

1 See above, pp. 404 sqq.

520

Readings in European History

449. The
Prussian
reform edict
of October 9,
1807.

We, Frederick William, by the grace of God king of
Prussia, etc., etc., hereby make known and proclaim that :
Since peace has been established we have been occupied
before everything else with the care for the depressed con-
dition of our faithful subjects and the speediest revival and
greatest possible improvement in this respect. We have con-
sidered that, in face of the prevailing want, the means at
our disposal would be insufficient to aid each individual,
and even if they were sufficient, we could not hope to accom-
plish our object ; and that, moreover, in accordance with the
imperative demands of justice and with the principles of a
judicious economic policy, it behooves us to remove every
obstacle which has hitherto prevented the individual from
attaining such a state of prosperity as he was capable of
reaching. We have further considered that the existing re-
strictions, both on the possession and enjoyment of landed
property and on the personal condition of the agricultural
laborer, especially interfere with our benevolent purpose and
disable a great force which might be applied to the restora-
tion of agriculture, — the former, by their prejudicial influ-
ence upon the value of landed property and the credit of the
proprietor ; the latter, by diminishing the value of labor.
We desire, therefore, to reduce both kinds of restrictions so
far as the common well-being demands, and we accordingly
ordain the following.

1. Every inhabitant of our states is competent, without
any limitation on the part of the state, to own or mortgage
landed property of every kind. The noble may therefore
own not only noble, but also non-noble, citizen and peasant
lands of every kind, and the citizen and peasant may pos-
sess not only citizen, peasant, and other non-noble, but also
noble tracts of land without in any case needing special per-
mission for any acquisition whatever, although henceforth,
as before, every change of ownership must be announced to
the authorities. All privileges which are possessed by noble
over citizen inheritances are entirely abolished. . . .

2. Every noble is henceforth permitted, without any dero-
gation from his station, to engage in citizen occupation, and

Europe and Napoleon

521

every citizen or peasant is allowed to pass from the citizen
into the peasant class or from the peasant into the citizen
classd . . .

10. From the date of this ordinance no new relation of
serfdom, whether by birth or marriage, or by assuming the
position of a serf, or by contract, can be created.

11. With the publication of the present ordinance the ex-
isting relations of serfdom of those serfs, with their wives and
children, who possess their peasant holdings by inheritance,
or in their own right, or by perpetual leases, or of copyhold,
shall cease entirely, together with all mutual rights and duties.

12. From Martinmas, one thousand eight hundred and
ten (1810), all serfdom shall cease throughout our whole
realm. From Martinmas, 1810, there shall be only free per-
sons, as is already the case upon the royal domains in all
our provinces, — free persons, however, still subject, as a
matter of course, to all obligations which bind them, as free
persons, by reason of the possession of an estate or by vir-
tue of a special contract.^

To this declaration of our supreme will every one whom
it may concern, and in particular our provincial authorities
and other officials, are exactly and dutifully to conform, and
the present ordinance is to be universally made known.

Given authentically, under our own royal signature, at

Memel, October o, 1807. ^

^ Frederick William,

Schrotter, Stein, Schrotter II.

1 The articles here omitted relate to leases, mortgages, etc., and are
technical and obscure.

2 These general provisions abolishing serfdom were so vague as to
be misunderstood. The king therefore issued an official explanation
later (April 8, 1809 ; Gesetz-Sam inlung^ 1806-1810, pp. 557 sqq.), which
serves to enlighten us upon the exact nature of the personal dependence
of the serf. This consisted, for example, in the right of the lord to
demand three years’ service from children of his serfs, and to control
them in later life in the matter of occupation and marriage. The for-
mer serf is permitted by the new law to engage in any industry he may
choose and to leave the manor if he wishes without demanding the
consent of the lord.

522

Readings in European History

By the middle of March, 1813, the timid king of
Prussia, encouraged by Napoleon’s defeat in Russia,
finally decided to throw off the French yoke and lead
his country into a war of liberation. He explained his
reasons to his people in one of the most famous docu-
ments (“An mein Volk") in modern German history.

450. The

king of

Prussia

rouses his

people

against

Napoleon.

There is no need of explaining to my loyal subjects, or to
any German, the reasons for the war which is about to begin.
They lie plainly before the eyes of awakened Europe. We
succumbed to the superior force of France. The peace
which followed deprived me of my people and, far from
bringing us blessings, it inflicted upon us deeper wounds
than the war itself, sucking out the very marrow of the coun-
try. Our principal fortresses remained in the hand of the
enemy, and agriculture, as well as the highly developed in-
dustries of our towns, was crippled. The freedom of trade
was hampered and thereby the sources of commerce and
prosperity cut off. The country was left a prey to the rav-
ages of destitution.

I hoped, by the punctilious fulfillment of the engagements
I had entered into, to lighten the burdens of my people, and
even to convince the French emperor that it would be to
his own advantage to leave Prussia her independence. But
the purest and best of intentions on my part were of no
avail against insolence and faithlessness, and it became only
too plain that the emperor’s treaties would gradually ruin
us even more surely than his wars. The moment is come
when we can no longer harbor the slightest illusion as to
our situation.

Brandenburgers, Prussians, Silesians, Pomeranians, Lith-
uanians ! You know what you have borne for the past seven
years ; you know the sad fate that awaits you if we do not
bring this war to an honorable end. Think of the times gone
by, — of the Great Elector, the great Frederick ! Remember
the blessings for which your forefathers fought under their
leadership and which they paid for with their blood, — freedom

Europe mid Napoleon

523

of conscience, national honor, independence, commerce, in-
dustry, learning. Look at the great example of our powerful
allies, the Russians ; look at the Spaniards, the Portuguese.
For such objects as these even weaker peoples have gone
forth against mightier enemies and returned in triumph.
Witness the heroic Swiss and the people of the Netherlands.

Great sacrifices will be demanded from every class of the
people, for our undertaking is a great one, and the number
and resources of our enemies far from insignificant. But
would you not rather make these sacrifices for the father-
land and for your own rightful king than for a foreign ruler,
who, as he has shown by many examples, will use you and
your sons and your uttermost farthing for ends which are
nothing to you ?

Faith in God, perseverance, and the powerful aid of our
allies will bring us victory as the reward of our honest efforts.
Whatever sacrifices may be required of us as individuals,
they will be outweighed by the sacred rights for which we
make them, and for which we must fight to a victorious end
unless we are willing to cease to be Prussians or Germans.
This is the final, the decisive struggle ; upon it depends our
independence, our prosperity, our existence. There are no
other alternatives but an honorable peace or a heroic end.
You would willingly face even the latter for honor’s sake, for
without honor no Prussian or German could live.

However, we may confidently await the outcome. God
and our own firm purpose will bring victory to our cause
and with it an assured and glorious peace and the return of
happier times.

Frederick William.

Breslau, March 17, 1813.

Immediately after the great battle of the nations at
Leipzig the distinguished Prussian statesman, Stein,
writes as follows to his wife :

Leipzig, October 21, 1813.

At last, my dear one, we may venture to indulge in a
feeling of happiness. Napoleon is beaten and put to flight

451. Stein
reports the
battle of
Leipzig to
his wife.

524 Readings in European History

in disorder. They are driving him over to the left bank of
the Rhine and the Austro-Bavarian army will catch up with
him before he crosses the river. This is the result of the
bloody but glorious battle of the 14th, i6th, i8th, and 19th
of October..

And so that monstrous structure built up by the maddest
and most perverse tyranny and cemented by the blood and
tears of so many millions now lies in ruins. From one end
of Germany to the other men now dare to say that Napoleon
is a scoundrel and an enemy of the human race ; that the
shameful bonds in which he has held our fatherland are
broken, and the humiliation he has heaped upon us is washed
out in streams of French blood.

This great event is due to the persistence and noble spirit
developed by Emperor Alexander in the important and deci-
sive events of last year, the heroic devotion of his people,
and the spirit of justice and moderation which he has shown
in all his negotiations with the powers whom he has invited
to associate their efforts with his ; to the sacrifices and
strength which Prussia has brought to the struggle since she
entered it ; to the spirit of opposition and hate toward the
oppressor which has shown itself on all sides.

The workings of Providence are at least justified by the
terrible judgment which has been meted out to the monster
whose obstinacy has led him into political and military follies
which have hastened his fall and made him an object of
contempt among the people. . . .

These results have been won by two bloody, glorious,
and tragic campaigns, and through many costly battles. At
Liitzen, Bautzen, Teltow, Dresden, Katzbach, Kulm, Denne-
witz, Bledin, Leipzig, the seed was sown for this harvest
which now awaits us, the fruits of which we should enjoy
with a devout and thankful recognition of the hand of Prov-
idence, and in all moderation.

The allies have vested in me the whole administration of
the territory which they have occupied. Repnin has been
made governor of Saxony. I leave in a fortnight, as soon'
as the army has reached Frankfort.

Europe and Napoleon

525

VIII. The Downfall of Napoleon

Six months after the battle of Leipzig Napoleon finally
renounced, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of
France and Italy (April ii, 1814), and on the same day
concluded the Treaty of Fontainebleau with his enemies.

His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon, on the one part,
and, on the other, their Majesties the emperor of Austria,
the king of Prussia, and the emperor of all the Russias,
both in their own names and those of their allies. . . .

1. His Majesty ^the Emperor Napoleon renounces for
himself, his successors, and descendants, as well as for all
the members of his family, all right of sovereignty and
dominion as well in the French empire as in the kingdom
of Italy and in every other country.

2. Their Majesties the Emperor Napoleon and the
Empress Maria Louisa shall retain their titles and rank, to
be enjoyed during their lifetime. The mother, brothers,
sisters, ' nephews, and nieces of the emperor shall retain,
wherever they may be, the titles of princes of his family.

3. The island of Elba, adopted by his Majesty the
Emperor Napoleon as the place of his residence, shall form
during his life a separate principality, which shall be
possessed by him in full sovereignty and proprietorship.

There shall be given to the Emperor Napoleon, besides
full proprietorship of the island of Elba, an annual revenue
of two million francs. . . .

5. The duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla shall
be given in full proprietorship and sovereignty to her
Majesty the Empress Maria Louisa. They shall pass to
her son and to his descendants in the direct line. The
prince, her son, shall assume from this moment the title of
Prince of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla. . . .

Eleven months later Napoleon returned from Elba,
but was met by the following declaration of the allies,
who were in conference at Vienna.

452. Treaty
of Fontaine-
bleau, in
which Napo-
leon abdi-
cates (April
II, 1814).

526

Readings hi European Histoiy

453. Decla-
ration of the
allies after
Napoleon’s
return from
Elba (March
i3> 1815).

The powers who signed the Treaty of Paris, reassembled
in the congress at Vienna, having been informed of the
escape of Napoleon Bonaparte and of his entrance into
France with an armed force, owe to their dignity and the
interest of social order the solemn declaration of the senti-
ments which that event has inspired in them.

In thus violating the convention which established him
in the island of Elba, Bonaparte has destroyed the only
legal title to his existence. By reappearing in France with
projects of disorder and destruction, he has cut himself off
from the protection of the law, and has shown in the face
of all the world that there can be neither peace nor truce
with him.

Accordingly, the powers declare that Napoleon Bona-
parte is excluded from civil and social relations, and as an
enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world he has
incurred public vengeance.

At the same time, being firmly resolved to preserve
intact the Treaty of Paris of May 30, 1814, and the
arrangements sanctioned by that treaty, as well as those
which have been or shall be arranged hereafter in order to
complete and consolidate it, they declare that they will
employ all their resources and unite all their efforts in
order that the general peace, the object of the desires of
Europe and the constant aim of their labors, may not be
again disturbed, and in order to secure themselves from all
attempts which may threaten to plunge the world once
more into the disorders and misfortunes of revolutions.

And although fully persuaded that all France, rallying
around its legitimate sovereign, will strive unceasingly to
bring to naught this last attempt of a criminal and impo-
tent madman, all the sovereigns of Europe, animated by
the same feeling and guided by the same principles, declare
that if, contrary to all expectation, there shall result from
that event any real danger, they will be ready to give to
the king of France and the French nation, or to any gov-
ernment which shall be attacked, as soon as shall be
required, all the assistance necessary to reestablish the

Europe and Napoleon 527

public tranquillity, and to make common cause against all
who may attempt to compromise it.

The present declaration, inserted in the protocol of the
congress assembled at Vienna, March 13, 1815, shall be
made public.

The allies completely carried out the programme
announced in the declaration above. In less than two
months after the battle of Waterloo, the ship bearing
Napoleon to St. Helena was well on its way. One of
the few companions who were permitted to accompany
him, the Comte de Las Cases, kept an interesting journal
of his experiences, especially of his conversations with
Napoleon (see above, p. 468). He makes the following
entries in his diary.

August 10. This day we cleared the Channel. We had
now entered upon the dreary unknown course to which fate
had doomed us. Again my agonies were renewed ; again
the dear connections I had abandoned resumed their sway
over my heart. . . . Meanwhile we advanced in our course
and were soon to be out of Europe. Thus, in less than six
weeks, had the emperor abdicated his throne and placed
himself in the hands of the English, who were now hurry-
ing him to a barren rock in the midst of a vast ocean.
This is certainly no ordinary instance of the chances of
fortune, and no common trial of firmness of mind. . . .

As to the reproach of suffering himself to be trans-
ported to St. Helena, it would be a disgrace to answer
such a charge. To contend with an adversary in the cabin
of a ship, to kill some one with his own hand, or attempt
to set fire to the powder magazine would have been at best
the act of a buccaneer. Dignity in misfortune, submission
to necessity have also their glory, and it is that which
becomes great men overwhelmed by adversity. . . .

August 11-14. Our course was shaped to cross the Bay
of Biscay and to double Cape Einisterre. The wind was fair
though light, and the heat excessive. Nothing could be

454. Napo-
leon’s exile to
St. Helena.
(From
Las Cases’
diary.)

528 Readings in European History

more monotonous than the time we now passed. ... It
is well known that Napoleon was wont to be scarcely more
than fifteen minutes at his dinner. Here the two courses
alone occupied from an hour to an hour and a half. This
was to him a most serious annoyance, though he never
mentioned it ; his features, gestures, and manner always
evinced perfect indifference. Neither the new system of
cookery, the difference, or the quality of the dishes ever
met with his censure or approbation. . . .

I need scarcely observe that the English are accustomed
to remain a long time at table after the dessert, drinking
and conversing. The emperor, already wearied by the
tedious dinner, could never have endured this custom ; he
rose, therefore, from the first day, immediately after coffee
had been handed around, and went out on deck, followed
by the grand marshal and myself. This disconcerted the
admiral, who took occasion to express his surprise to his
officers ; but Madame Bertrand, whose maternal language
was English, warmly replied, “Do not forget. Admiral, that
your guest is a man who has governed a large portion of
the world, and that kings once contended for the honor
of being admitted to his table.” “Very true,” rejoined the
admiral ; and this officer, who possessed good sense, a
becoming pliability of manners, and sometimes much ele-
gance, did his utmost from that moment to accommodate
the emperor in his habits. He shortened the time of sitting
at the table, ordering coffee for Napoleon and those who
accompanied him even before the rest of the company had
finished their dinner. . . .

October 2^-24. The Emperor Napoleon, who but lately
possessed such boundless power and disposed of so many
crowns, now occupies a wretched hovel, a few feet square,
which is perched upon a rock, unprovided with furniture,
and without either shutters or curtains to the windows.
This place must serve him for bedchamber, dressing room,
dining room, study, and sitting room ; and he is obliged to
go out when it is necessary to have this one apartment
cleaned. His meals, consisting of a few wretched dishes.

Europe and Napoleoji

529

are brought to him from a distance, as though he were a
criminal in a dungeon. He is absolutely in want of the
necessaries of life : the bread and wine are not only not
such as he has been accustomed to, but are so bad that we
loathe to touch them ; water, coffee, butter, oil, and other
articles are either not to be procured or are scarcely fit
for use. . . .

Assuredly if the sovereigns of Europe decreed this exile,
private enmity has directed its execution. If policy alone
dictated this measure as indispensable, would it not have
been essential, in order to render the fact evident to the
world, to have surrounded with every kind of respect and
consideration the illustrious victim with regard to whom it
has been necessary to violate law and principle ?

We were all assembled around the emperor, and he was
recapitulating these facts with warmth : “ For what infa-
mous treatment are we reserved ! ” he exclaimed. “This is
the anguish of death. To injustice and violence they now
add insult and protracted torment. If I were so hateful to
them, why did they not get rid of me ? A few musket balls
in my heart or my head would have done the business, and
there would at least have been some energy in the crime.
Were it not for you, and above all for your wives, I would
receive nothing from them but the pay of a private soldier.
How can the monarchs of Europe permit the sacred char-
acter of sovereignty to be violated in my person ? Do they
not see that they are, with their own hands, working their
own destruction at St. Helena ? I entered their capitals
victorious and, had I cherished such sentiments, what would
have become of them ? They styled me their brother, and
I had become so by the choice of the people, the sanction
of victory, the character of religion, and the alliances of
their policy and their blood. Do they imagine that the
good sense of nations is blind to their conduct ? And
what do they expect from it ? At all events, make your
complaints, gentlemen ; let indignant Europe hear them.
Complaints from me would be beneath my dignity and
character ; I must either command or be silent.”

530

Readings in European History

A. Refer-
ences.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English,

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Napoleon’s Reforms in France: Fournier, Napoleon, Chapter IX,
pp. 221-241.

Campaign of Austerlitz : Fournier, Chapter XI, pp. 283-324;
Fyffe, Modern Eiirope, Chapter VI, pp. 179-207.

Napoleon’s Creation of New States : Fournier, Chapter XII,
PP- 325-355-

Jena and Tilsit: Fournier, Chapter XIII, pp. 356-390; Fyffe,
Chapter VII, pp. 208-246.

Napoleon’s Empire at its Height: Fournier, Chapter XVI,
pp. 493-535; Fyffe, Chapter IX, pp. 271-306.

Russian Campaign : Fournier, Chapter XVII, pp. 536-579 ; Fyffe,
Chapter X, pp. 307-329.

German War of Liberation : Fournier, Chapter XVIII, pp. 580-
642; Fyffe, Chapter XI, pp. 330-367.

Waterloo: Fournier, Chapter XX, pp. 694-720.

Fournier, Avgvst, Napoleon the First, A Biography, 1903; English
translation from the German, edited by Professor E. G. Bourne. The
best treatment in one volume; scholarly, well written, gives much atten-
tion to the general European situation, and is supplied with an extensive
and admirable bibliography.

Sloane, William M., Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 4 vols., 4to,
magnificently illustrated. A new and cheaper library edition is to be
issued. One of the great standard biographies, based upon a long and
careful study of the sources. The author confines himself mainly to
the personal history of Napoleon, giving much attention to his early
years, and makes no attempt to write the history of Europe during the
Napoleonic period.

Rose, J. H., The Life of Napoleojt L, 2 vols., 1902. A careful, up-to-
date account, mainly political.

Lanfrey, Pierre, History of Napoleon, 4 vols. Translated from
the French. This work was interrupted by the author’s death, and
reaches only to the close of 1811. While the writer makes constant
use of the best of sources, Napoleon’s own letters, his attitude is unfair,
and the motives ascribed for Napoleon’s policy are always the lowest.
The work forms an excellent antidote to that of Thiers (see below).

Thiers, History of the Consulate and Ejnpire. Several editions of
the English translation are available. Thiers shows an unmistakable

Europe and Napoleon

531

tendency, especially in the earlier half of his work, unduly to glorify the
Napoleonic regime. The sources relied upon are, moreover, very rarely
cited. The work is, nevertheless, important and is probably the most
interesting history in twenty volumes ever written.

Taine, The French Revohitioji, Vol. Ill (on the Directory). By the
same writer. The Modern Regime, 2 vols., 1894 ; especially ^ol. I, Book I,
in which the author gives in a short space the most brilliant, fascinat-
ing, and suggestive analysis of Napoleon’s genius ever written. The
remainder of the work is a critical estimate of the influence of the insti-
tutions established by Napoleon upon the later history of France.

Seeley, Life and Times of Stein, or Germany and Priissia in the
Napoleonic Age, 3 vols., 1878.

Mahan, Influence of the Sea Power tipon the French Revolution and
Etnpire, 2 vols.

Fisher, H. A. L., Studies i?i Napoleonic Statesmanship, Germany, 1903.

Dorman, A History of the British Empire in the Nineteenth Century,
Vol. I (1793-1805), 1902.

Oman, History of the Peninsular War, Vols. I-II, 1903.

Bigelow, P., History of the German Struggle for Liberty.

Bingham, A Selection from the Letters and Despatches of the First
Napoleon, 3 vols., 1884.

Anderson, Constitutions and Documents Illustrative of the History of
France, iflg-igoi. Contains translations of many important documents.

New Letters of Napoleon I edited by Lecestre (Appleton) (omitted
from the great collection of his correspondence).

The Memoirs of Napoleon dictated on the island of St. Helena are
by no means wholly reliable, but are, nevertheless, very interesting and
important. Among the memoirs of his companions on St. Helena to be
had in English are Las Cases, The Journal of St. Helena (see above,
pp. 527 sqql)-, Montholon, History of the Captivity of Napoleoji, 1846;
A Diary of St. Helena (containing conversations of Napoleon with Sir
Malcolm), 1899; Gourgaud, Chicago, 1903.

A considerable number of the innumerable memoirs relating to the
Napoleonic period have been translated. Among these the most con-
spicuous are those by Madame de Remusat, relating to the early years
of the empire (excellent); Bourrienne, very well known and especially
valuable for Napoleon’s earlier life ; Miot de Melito, one of King
Joseph’s companions (excellent) ; Pasquier, S6gur, Talleyrand,
5 vols.; M^neval, 3 vols. ; Marbot, 2 vols., etc. Narrative of Captain
Coignet, translated by Mrs. Carey. A striking account of the life of a
simple-minded soldier.

Some sources
available in
English.

Memoirs.

532

Readings in European History

Material Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire generale, Vol. IX.

'' advanced ScioUT, Le Directoire, 2 vols., 1895.

SoREL, L' Europe et la Revolution fran^aise, Vols. V-VIII, 1795-1815
(see above, p. 462).

Sybel, Geschichte der Revolutionszeit, Vols. IV-V. On the Directory.

Chuquet,.Z« Jeunesse de Napoleoji, 3 vols.

Lefebvre, Histoire des cabinets de V Europe, 2d ed., 5 vols., 1866-1869.
Perhaps the best diplomatic history.

Haussonville, VEglise romaine et le Pre7tiier Einpire, 5 vols.

Vandal, Napoleoit et Alexandre, 3 vols., 1891 sqq.

Welschinger, La Censure sous le pre7nier e77ipire, 1882.

Hausser, Deutsche Geschichte, 4 vols. A readable and scholarly
treatment of the period between the death of Frederick the Great and
the close of the Napoleonic period. More recent accounts may be found
in Denis, E., H Alle77iagne, ij8g-i8ro, 1896; Heigel, Deutsche Ge-
schichte; and ZWIEDINECK-SUDENHORST, Deutsche Geschichte, Vol. I,
1806-1815.

Baumgarten, Geschichte Spa7iie7ts, Vol. I.

The various monographs and special histories of this period are
enumerated in Fournier, Napoleo7i, pp. 745-788. See also Kircheisen,
^ Bibliographie Napoleo7is, 1903 ; LuMBROSO also has an elaborate bibli-

ography of Napoleonic literature in course of publication, 1894^^^.

irces. Chief of all the sources is Napoleon’s correspondence in 32 volumes.

While some important letters have been suppressed (see La Gra7ide
Encyclopedie, Vol. XXIV, p. 792), this vast collection throws light
upon almost every act of Napoleon’s public life. It may be had for
some twenty dollars, and should be in every good historical library.

Napoleon, Me77ioires, 8 vols., 1823. (New edition in the Correspon-
da7tce, Vols. XXIX-XXXII). Dictated by Napoleon to his companions
on the island of St. Helena, and they naturally give a more favorable
idea of his policy than is derived from the correspondence.

Besides the various memoirs mentioned above, we have those of
Napoleon’s brothers, Lucien, Joseph, and Louis, and of his ministers
and generals, Marmont, Rapp, Davout, etc. To these may be added
Mollien, Souve7iirs dhm 77iinistre du Tresor, new edition by Gomel,
1898 ; Thtbaudeau, Mh7ioires sur le co7tsulat ; Veron, Me77ioires d'u7t
bourgeois de Paris ; Chaptal, Mes Souvenirs sur Napoleon, 1893.

CHAPTER XXXIX

EUROPE AFTER THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA

I. The Congress of Vienna

When the long and bloody struggle of the European
powers against Napoleon was finally brought to a suc-
cessful issue in the spring of 1814, France, who was
looked upon as the chief promoter of discord during the
previous twenty years, was naturally viewed as the black
sheep by the allies. But Louis XVIII was represented
at the Congress of Vienna by a well-tried diplomat,
Talleyrand, who skillfully took advantage of the diver-
gent interests of the allies and soon restored France
to her natural position of importance in the concert
of the powers. Nevertheless, when Talleyrand left Paris
for Vienna the outlook was gloomy enough. He said to
Pasquier on the eve of his departure :

I am probably going to play a very sorry part. In the
first place, what kind of a welcome shall I receive ? Shall
I ever get a hearing? Following upon the convention of
the 30th of May, the allied sovereigns made the king of
France bind himself not to interfere in the partition they
should see fit to make of the territories wrested from Bona-
parte. If it is their intention that that engagement shall
be strictly adhered to, I shall he present there only as what
is altogether wrongly styled ad honores. I may occasionally
open my lips for form’s sake, but no heed will be paid to
the words issuing from them. On the other hand, I shall
be blamed at home for everything that does not turn out
533

France at
first viewed
as a black
sheep at the
Congress of
Vienna.

455. Talley-
rand’s dis-
couragement
upon start-
ing for the
Congress
of Vienna.
(From Pas-
quier’s
Memoirs.)

534

Readmgs in European History

456. Talley-
rand writes
to Louis
XVIII de-
scribing his
successful
diplomacy
at Vienna.

Treaty of
Ghent (De-
cember 24,
1814).

as one would have wished. I do not enjoy the confidence
of these people ; for the past five months they have taken
no pains to conceal this fact from me. Under such circum-
stances the best thing for a man to do, were it only possible,
would be to stay at home.

But Talleyrand had underrated his wonderful diplo-
matic skill, and had failed to reckon with the assistance
which he would receive from the conflicting interests
and dissensions among the allies. Early in January he
was able to write the following complacent letter to
Louis XVIII.

Vienna, January 4, 1815.

Sire :

I have received the letter of the 23d of last month with
which your Majesty deigned to honor me. On the 21st of
the present month, the anniversary of a day of horror and
eternal mourning,^ a solemn expiatory service will be cele-
brated in one of the principal churches of Vienna. . . .
Everything in this sad ceremony must be proportioned
to the grandeur of its object, the splendor of the crown of
France, and the quality of those who are to be present. All
the members of the Congress will be invited, and I am
sure that they will come. . . .

The news of the signature of peace between England
and the United States of America was announced to me
on New Year’s day by a note from Lord Castlereagh. I has-
tened to offer him my congratulations, and I also congrat-
ulated myself on the event, feeling that it may influence
both the disposition of the minister and the resolution of
those with whose pretensions we have had to contend
hitherto. Lord Castlereagh showed me the treaty. It does
not touch the honor of either of the two parties concerned
and consequently it will satisfy both.

This happy intelligence was only the precursor of a still
more fortunate event. The spirit of the coalition, and the

1 The anniversary of the execution of Louis XVI.

Euj'ope after the Congress of Vienna

535

coalition itself, had survived the Peace of Paris. My cor-
respondence up to the present time has supplied your
Majesty with repeated proofs of this. If the plans which,
on arriving here, I found had been formed, had been car-
ried into execution, France might have stood alone in
Europe without being in good relations with any one single
power for half a century to come. All my efforts were
directed to the prevention of so great a misfortune, but my
most ardent hopes did not reach the height of a complete
success.

But now, sire, the coalition is dissolved, and forever.
Not only does France no longer stand alone in Europe,
but your Majesty is already in an alliance such as it seemed
that fifty years of negotiation could not have procured for
her. France is now in concert with two of the greatest
powers and three states of the second order, and will soon
be in concert with all the states which are guided by other
than revolutionary principles and maxims. Your Majesty
will be, in reality, the head and soul of that union, formed
for the defense of the principles which your Majesty has
been the first to proclaim.

So great and happy a change is only to be attributed to
that special favor of Providence which was so clearly indi-
cated by the restoration of your Majesty to the throne.
Under God, the efficient causes of this change have been :

My letters to Monsieur de Metternich and Lord Castle-
reagh and the impressions which they have produced ;

The suggestions which I gave Lord Castlereagh relative
to a union with France and of which I gave your Majesty
an account in my last letter ;

The pains I have taken to lull his distrust by exhibiting
perfect disinterestedness in the name of France ;

The peace with America, which, by releasing him from
difficulty on that side, has left him more liberty of action
and given him greater courage ;

Lastly, the pretensions of Russia and Prussia, as set
forth in the Russian project of which I have the honor to
subjoin a copy; and especially the manner in which those

Hostility of
the allies
toward
France.

Talleyrand
forms an
alliance
between
France,
England,
Austria, and
lesser powers.

457. Diffi-
cult position
of Louis
XVIII and
his govern-
ment.

536 Readings m European History

pretensions were advanced and argued in a conference
between their plenipotentiaries and those of Austria. The
arrogant tone of that insolent and nonsensical document
so deeply offended Lord Castlereagh that, departing from
his habitual calmness, he declared that the Russians were
claiming to lay down the law and that England was not
disposed to accept that from anybody.

II. France after the Restoration

Chancellor Pasquier, with his usual insight, gives in
his Memoirs the following picture of France on the
restoration of the Bourbons.

Vanquished on the loth of August, 1792, immolated on
the 2ist of January, 1793, the Bourbon monarchy had
returned after twenty-two years, which had seen a republic,
a directorial government, a consulate, and an empire. It
came back not in a blaze of glory, since not a single vic-
tory had been won in the past twenty years either by it or
in its name, but bringing with it the blessings of a neces-
sary peace. Peace abroad, peace at home, was all that was
expected of it ; but for this dual peace to be lasting it must
be an honorable one. No longer could any ambitious day-
dreams be indulged in ; we could revel no more in the
enjoyment of the brilliant victories which had become so
dear to the French heart. Care must be taken the while
to respect the memory of them, and to be considerate in
the treatment of those who had risen to an illustrious and
glorious prominence, all the more precious in that it alone
had survived the shipwreck. Yet fate and the force of cir-
cumstances rendered these memories — cherished by so large
a majority of Frenchmen — a painful subject to the king,
the royal family, and almost all those who had returned in
their wake.

The situation was a delicate one, for hardly any one
dared to give frank expression to his natural sentiments.
Some there were who, in spite of the caution enjoined by

E2irope after the Congress of Vienna

537

policy, necessarily found their prestige dimmed. Accus-
tomed as they had been for fifteen years to hold first rank
both in the army and at court, they now found themselves
forced to share their power with men the greater number
of whom had hitherto remained unknown to fame, and who
suddenly assumed an attitude characterized by a superior-
ity which displayed itself with that ease which usually
belongs only to a possession of long date. . . .

It not unfrequently occurred that the most illustrious
among generals heard people ask in the salons of the Tui-
leries who they were. These names, which had so often
resounded in the bulletins of the Grande Armee, were
known in Vienna, in Berlin, and in the many capitals
through which their bearers had passed as conquerors.
On the other hand, those who in their own country, and
in its very capital, involuntarily put this slight upon them,
were perpetually exasperated at heart by the consideration
and respectful treatment which policy dictated should be
shown to men of the empire, and which seemed to the
returned royalists excessive. . . .

There was an ever-present and ill-concealed feeling of
antagonism between the throng of officers who had won
their promotion in the wars of the Revolution and the
noblemen of all ages who were in so great a hurry to wear
their old epaulets once more or to procure fresh ones.

The constitution which Louis XVIII granted to
France upon the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty
in 1814 is important from two points of view. In the
first place, it furnishes an expression of the permanent
results of the revolutionary period. Its concessions
measure the space which separates the times of Louis
XVI from those of his brother, Louis XVIII. In this
respect the preamble and the bill of rights are of
especial interest. Secondly, no other constitution has
ever served France for so long a period. The Charter,

Strained
relations
between the
returned
Emigres
and the
Napoleonic
nobility.

538

Readings in European History

although somewhat modified in 1830 upon the accession
of Louis Philippe, was maintained until 1848.

458. Ex-
tracts from
the French
Charter of
1814.

Reasons
which led
Louis XVIII
to grant a
constitution.

Louis, by the grace of God king of France ajid Navarre, to all
those to whom these presents co7?ie, salutation :

Divine Providence, in recalling us to our estates after a
long absence, has imposed grave responsibilities upon us.
Peace was the first necessity of our subjects, and with this
we have unceasingly occupied ourselves. That peace so es-
sential to France and to the rest of Europe has been signed.

A Constitutional Charter was demanded by the exist-
ing condition of the kingdom ; we promised this and now
publish it. We have taken into consideration the fact that,
although the whole authority in France resides in the per-
son of the king, our predecessors have not hesitated to
modify the exercise of this in accordance with the differ-
ences of the times. It was thus that the communes owed
their enfranchisement to Louis the Fat, the confirmation
and extension of their rights to St. Louis and Philip the
Fair, and that the judicial system was established and de-
veloped by the laws of Louis XI, Henry II, and Charles IX.
It was in this way, finally, that Louis XIV regulated almost
every portion of the public administration by various
ordinances which have never been surpassed in wisdom.

We, like the kings our predecessors, have had to con-
sider the effects of the ever-increasing progress of knowl-
edge, the new relations which this progress has introduced
into society, the direction given to the public mind during
half a century, and the serious troubles resultingTherefrom.
We have perceived that the wish of our subjects for a Con-
stitutional Charter was the expression of a real need ; but
in yielding to this wish we have taken every precaution that
this charter should be worthy of us and of the people whom
we are proud to rule. Able men taken from the highest
official bodies of the state were added to the commission-
ers of our council to elaborate this important work. While
we recognize that the expectations of enlightened Europe
ought to be gratified by a free monarchical constitution,

Europe after the Congi'ess of Vienna

539

we have had to remember that our first duty toward our
people was to preserve, for their own interest, the rights
and prerogatives of our crown.

We hope that, taught by experience, they may be con-
vinced that the supreme authority alone can give to insti-
tutions which it establishes the power, permanence, and
dignity with which it is itself clothed; that, consequently,
when the wisdom of kings freely harmonizes with the wish
of the people, a Constitutional Charter may long endure,
but that when concessions are snatched with violence from
a weak government, public liberty is not less endangered
than the throne itself.

We have sought the principles of the Constitutional
Charter in the French character and in the venerable monu-
ments of past centuries. Thus we perceived in the revival
of the peerage a truly national institution which binds
memories to hope by uniting ancient and modern times.
We have replaced by the Chamber of Deputies those ancient
assemblies of the March Field and May Field, and those
chambers of the third estate which so often exhibited at
once proof of their zeal for the interests of the people and
fidelity and respect for the authority of kings.

In thus endeavoring to renew the chain of time which
fatal excesses had broken, we effaced from our memory, as
we would we might blot out from history, all the evils which
have afflicted the country during our absence. Happy to
find ourselves again in the bosom of our great family, we
could only respond to the love of which we receive so many
testimonies by uttering words of peace and consolation.
The dearest wish of our heart is that all Frenchmen may
live like brothers, and that no bitter memory should ever
trouble the tranquillity which should follow the solemn
decree which we grant them to-day.

Confident in our intentions, strong in our conscience, we
engage ourselves before the assembly which listens to us to be
faithful to this Constitutional Charter; with the intention of
swearing to maintain it with added solemnity before the altars
of Him who weighs in the same balance kings and nations.

540

Readings in European History

For these reasons we have voluntarily, and by the free
exercise of our royal authority, granted and do grant, con-
cede, and accord, as well for us as for our successors forever,
the Constitutional Charter, as follows.

Public Rights of the French i

Article i. All Frenchmen are equal before the law, what-
ever may be their title or rank.

2. They contribute without distinction to the impositions
of the state in proportion to their fortune.

3. They are all equally eligible to civil and military posi-
tions.

4. Their personal liberty is likewise guaranteed ; no one
can be prosecuted or arrested except in the cases and in the
manner prescribed by law.

5. All may with equal liberty make profession of their
religion and enjoy the same protection for their worship.

6. Nevertheless the Roman Catholic and apostolic reli-
gion is the religion of the state.

7. The ministers of the Roman Catholic and apostolic
religion, and those of other Christian forms of worship only,
shall receive subsidies from the royal treasury.

8. All Frenchmen have the right to publish and cause
their opinions to be printed, if they conform to the laws
destined to check the abuse of this liberty.

9. All property is inviolable ; that known as national
property forms no exception, since the law recognizes no
difference between that and other property.

10. The state may demand the surrender of property in
the interest of the public when this is legally certified, but
only with previous indemnification.

11. All investigation of opinions expressed or of votes
cast previous to the Restoration is prohibited; oblivion of
these is imposed upon the courts and upon citizens alike.

1 To show the permanence of the first achievements of the Revolu-
tion this list of rights should be compared with the Declaration of the
Rights of Man drawn up in 1789 (see above, pp. 409^^5^.).

Europe after the Congress of Vienna

541

12. The conscription is abolished; the method of recruit-
ing both for the army and the navy shall be determined
by law.

Form of the Government of the King

13. The person of the king is inviolable and sacred; his
ministers are responsible. In the king alone is vested the
executive power.

14. The king is the supreme head of the state; he has
command of the land and naval forces, declares war, con-
cludes treaties of peace, alliance, and commerce, appoints
all the officials of the public administration, and issues the
regulations and ordinances necessary for the execution of
the laws and the safety of the state.

15. The legislative power is exercised jointly by the king,
the Chamber of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies of the
departments.

16. The right of initiating legislation belongs to the
king.

17. Proposed laws are submitted, at the option of the
king, either to the Chamber of Peers or to the Chamber of
Deputies, except laws for raising taxes, which must be sub-
mitted to the Chamber of Deputies first.

18. Every law must be discussed and passed freely by a
majority of each of the two houses.

19. The chambers have the right to petition the king to
submit a law relating to any subject and to indicate what
they deem the law should contain,^ . . .

The unpopularity of Charles X and the disorders in
Paris during the July days, 1830, brought about a state
of affairs which is described in a declaration of the
Chamber of Deputies, August 7.

1 The succeeding sections on the Chamber of Peers, the Chamber of
Deputies, the judiciary, etc., are omitted here. The whole document
may be found in Translations and Reprhits, Vol. I, No. 3, or Anderson,
Constitutions and Documents, pp. 456 sqq.

Position of
the king.

System of
lawmaking.

459. The
Chamber of
Deputies
summons
Louis
Philippe to
the throne.

The throne

declared

vacant.

Louis
Philippe
invited, under
certain con-
ditions, to
become king
of France.

542 Readings in European History

The Chamber of Deputies, in view of the imperative
necessity resulting from the events of July 26, 27, 28, and
29, and the following days, and the general situation of
France due to the violation of the Constitutional Charter;

In view also of the fact that, in consequence of this vio-
lation and of the heroic resistance of the citizens of Paris,
his Majesty Charles X and his Royal Highness Louis
Antoine, the dauphin, and all the members of the older
branch of the royal house are at this moment leaving
French territory, declares that the throne is vacant in
fact and right and that it is indispensable to provide
therefor.

The Chamber of Deputies declares, secondly, that, in
accordance with the wish and in the interest of the French
people, the preamble of the Constitutional Charter is sup-
pressed as wounding the national dignity, since it appears
to grant to Frenchmen the rights which are inherently
theirs,^ and that the following articles of the same charac-
ter must be suppressed or modified in the manner below
indicated.

[Here follows a series of modifications in the charter,
intended to preclude the illiberal construction which Charles
X had placed upon it.]

On condition of the acceptance of these arrangements
and propositions, the Chamber of Deputies declares that
the general and pressing interest of the French people sum-
mons to the throne his Royal Highness Louis Philippe of
Orleans, duke of Orleans, lieutenant general of the kingdom,
and his descendants forever, from male to male, in order
of primogeniture, to the perpetual exclusion of women and
their descendants. Accordingly his Royal Highness Louis
Philippe of Orleans shall be invited to accept and swear
to the clauses and engagements above enumerated, and to
the observation of the Constitutional Charter including the
modifications indicated, and, after having done this in the
presence of the assembled chambers, to take the title of
King of the French.

1 See above, pp. 538 sqq.

Europe after the Congress of Viemia

543

III. Germany and the Reaction after 1814

The German liberals came out of the struggle against
Napoleon with high hopes. They desired that the many
German states might be bound together into a really
firm national union, under a constitutional government.
Prussia favored this plan at Vienna, but Austria opposed
it for obvious reasons, and the German Act of Confeder-
ation, drawn up by the Congress of Vienna, established
a very loose union of sovereign princes, who dealt with
one another almost like independent rulers. Neverthe-
less this constitution lasted Germany from 1815 to 1866,
and formed a transition from the ancient Holy Roman
Empire, which Napoleon had destroyed, to the present
German empire.

In the 7iame of the Most Holy a?id Indivisible Trinity :

The sovereign princes and free towns of Germany, ani-
mated by the common desire to carry into effect Article VI
of the Peace of Paris of May 30, 1814, and convinced of
the advantages which would result for the security and
independence of Germany and for the repose and equilib-
rium of Europe from a firm and lasting union, have agreed
to unite themselves in a perpetual confederation, and have for
this purpose invested their envoys and deputies at the Con-
gress of Vienna with full powers, viz. :

His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty ; the Sieur
Clement Wenceslas, Prince of Metternich-W inneburg-Och-
senhausen, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Grand Cross of
the Royal Order of St. Stephen of Hungary, Knight of the
Order of St. Andrew, of the Order of St. Alexander Newsky
and of St. Anne of the First Class; Grand Cordon of the
Legion of Honor; Knight of the Order of the Elephant,
of the Order of the Annunciation, of the Black Eagle, of
the Red Eagle, of the Seraphim, of St. Joseph of Tuscany,
of St. Hubert, of the Golden Eagle of Wiirtemberg, of the

460. The
German Act
of Confeder-
ation
(June 8,
1815).

Metternich’s

grandeur

544

Readings in European History

Fidelity of Baden, of St. John of Jerusalem, and of several
others; Chancellor of the Military Order of Maria Theresa;
Curator of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Fine Arts;
Chamberlain and Active Privy Councilor of his Majesty the
emperor of Austria and king of Hungary and Bohemia ; his
Majesty’s Minister of State and of Conferences, as well as
Minister of Foreign Affairs and first plenipotentiary at the
Congress, — and the Sieur John Philip, baron of Wessen-
berg; Grand Cross of the Royal Sardinian Order of St.
Mauritius and St. Lazarus, and of the Royal Order of the
Crown of Bavaria, etc. ; Chamberlain and Active Privy
Councilor of his Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, and
his Majesty’s second plenipotentiary at the Congress.

His Royal Majesty of Prussia ; the Prince Hardenberg,
his Chancellor of State.^ . . .

General Provisions

Article I. The sovereign princes and free towns of
Germany, including their Majesties the emperor of Austria
and the kings of Prussia, of Denmark, and of the Nether-
lands ; to wit, the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia,
for all of their possessions formerly belonging to the German
empire^; the king of Denmark for Holstein ; and the king
of the Netherlands for the grand duchy of Luxemburg, —
unite in a perpetual union which shall be called the German
Confederation.

II. The aim of the same shall be the maintenance of
the external and internal safety of Germany and of the
independence and inviolability of the individual German
states.

HI. All members of the union have, as such, equal
rights. They all engage alike to maintain inviolate the
Act of Confederation.

^ It has not been deemed necessary to give the names of all the
plenipotentiaries. All the states enumerated in Article IV were repre-
sented at the Congress.

2 I.e. the Holy Roman Empire.

Europe after the Congress of Vienna

545

IV. The affairs of the Confederation shall be confided
to a Diet of the Confederation, in which all members of the
union shall vote through their plenipotentiaries, either in-
dividually or collectively, in the following manner, without

prejudice to their rank.

Votes

1. Austria i

2. Prussia i

3. Bavaria i

4. Saxony i

5. Hanover i

6. Wiirtemberg i

7. Baden i

8. Electoral Hesse i

9. Grand duchy of Hesse . . . i

10. Denmark, for Holstein . . . i

11. The Netherlands, for the grand

duchy of Luxemburg . . . i

Votes

12. The grand ducal and ducal

houses of Saxony . . . . i

13. Brunswick and Nassau . . . i

14. Mecklenburg-Schwerin and

Mecklenburg-Strelitz . . . i

15. Holstein-Oldenburg, Anhalt,

and Schwarzburg . . . . i

16. Hohenzollern, Liechtenstein,

Reuss, Schaumburg-Lippe,
Lippe, and Waldeck . . . i

17. The free towns, Liibeck, Frank-

fort, Bremen, and Hamburg . i

Voting in
the Diet.

Total votes

V. Austria shall preside in the Diet of the Confedera-
tion. Each member of the union has the right to make
and support propositions, and the presiding state is bound
within a determined period to bring them under deliberation.

VI. Whenever fundamental laws of the Confederation

are to be enacted or amended, or measures are to be adopted
relative to the Act of Confederation itself or organic insti-
tutions of the Confederation, or other arrangements of
common interest are under consideration, the Diet shall

form itself into a general assembly (^Pletiuni)^ in which the
distribution of the votes, based upon the respective extent
of the individual states of the union, has been arranged as

follows.^

Votes

1. Austria 4

2. Prussia 4

3. Saxony 4

4. Bavaria 4

5. Hanover 4

6. Wiirtemberg 4

7. Baden 3

Votes

8. Electoral Hesse 3

9. Grand duchy of Hesse ... 3

10. Holstein 3

11. Luxemburg 3

12. Brunswick 2

13. Mecklenburg-Schwerin ... 2

14. Nassau 2

System of
voting on
special
occasions.

1 The system of voting which now prevails in the Federal Council
(Bundesrath) of the German empire is based on this plan of 1815.

546

Readings in Eui'opean History

Votes

15. Saxe-Weimar i

16 Saxe-Gotha . i

17. Saxe-Coburg i

18. Saxe-Meiningen i

19. Saxe-Hildburghausen . . . . i

20. Mecklenburg-Strelitz . . . . i

21. Holstein-Oldenburg . . . . i

22. Anhalt-Dessau i

23. Anhalt-Bernburg i

24. Anhalt-Cdthen .... .1

25. Schwarzburg-Sondershausen . i

26. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt . . i

Total votes

Votes

27. Hohenzollern-Hechingen . . i

28. Liechtenstein ...... i

29. Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen . . i

30. Waldeck i

31. Reuss, Elder Branch . . . . i

32. Reuss, Younger Branch . . . i

33. Schaumberg-Lippe i

34. Lippe 1

35. The free town Liibeck . . . i

36. The free town Frankfort . . i

37. The free town Bremen . . . i

38. The free town Hamburg . . . i

Reference to
the great
readjustment
of 1803.

Members
reserve the
right to form
alliances.

The Diet of the Confederation, in deliberating on the
organic laws of the union, shall take into consideration
whether the mediatized estates of the former empire shall
be granted any collective votes in the Plenum. . . .

VIII. When the organic laws shall have been drawn up,
the Diet of the Confederation shall take into consideration
the future permanent order of voting to be adopted. In so
doing they shall deviate as little as possible from the regu-
lations of the former Diet, especially as based upon the pro-
visions of the Decree of the Imperial Commission of 1803.

IX. The Diet of the Confederation shall sit at Frankfort-
on-the-Main. The first meeting is fixed for the ist of Sep-
tember, 1815.

XI. All members of the Confederation pledge themselves
to protect Germany as a whole, as well as every single con-
federated state, against attack, and mutually guarantee their
entire possessions, so far as those are included within the
Confederation.

When war is once declared on the part of the Confedera-
tion no member shall negotiate separately with the enemy,
or conclude an armistice or make peace.

XII. The members of the Confederation reserve to
themselves the right of forming alliances of all kinds.
They pledge themselves, however, to contract no engage-
ment which shall be directed against the safety of the Con-
federation or that of any individual state within the union.

Europe after the Co7igress of Vierina

547

The members of the Confederation pledge themselves
likewise not to make war among themselves upon any pre-
tense, or to follow up their contentions with force, but to
submit these to the Diet. It shall devolve upon this body
to attempt arbitration by means of a commission. Should
this fail and a judicial decision become necessary, the
same shall be effected through a well-organized court of
arbitration, to the decision of which the conflicting parties
shall forthwith submit.^

The extreme phase in the spirit of reaction was reached
in Germany when the laws given below were enacted by
the Diet. Using the murder of Kotzebue as an excuse,
Metternich called a conference of the larger states of
the Confederation at Carlsbad (Bohemia) in August,
1819. Here a series of resolutions were drawn up, with
the aim of checking the free expression of opinions
hostile to existing institutions and of discovering and
bringing to justice conspirators, who were supposed to
exist in dangerous numbers. These Carlsbad Resolu-
tions were laid before the Diet, which, under Austria’s
influence, reluctantly ratified them.

I. A special representative of the ruler of each state
shall be appointed for each university, with appropriate
instructions and extended powers, and shall reside in the
place where the university is situated. This office may
devolve upon the existing curator or upon any other in-
dividual whom the government may deem qualified.

The function of this agent shall be to see to the strictest
enforcement of existing laws and disciplinary regulations ;
to observe carefully the spirit which is shown by the in-
structors in the university in their public lectures and

1 The “ special provisions ” which follow are omitted. The most
important of these, and one which later caused much discussion, was
Article XIII, which read : “ A constitution based upon the system of
estates shall take place {statt findeii) in all the states of the union.”

461. Chief
provisions of
the Carlsbad
Resolutions
as ratified
by the Diet
(September
20 1819).

548

Readings in European History

Law provid-
ing for a
supervision
of the univer-
sity profes-
sors and
students.

Students’

societies.

regular courses, and, without directly interfering in scien-
tific matters or in the methods of teaching, to give a salu-
tary direction to the instruction, having in view the future
attitude of the students. Lastly, he shall devote unceasing
attention to everything that may promote morality, good
order, and outward propriety among the students. . . .

2. The confederated governments mutually pledge them-
selves to remove from the universities or other public edu-
cational institutions all teachers who, by obvious deviation
from their duty, or by exceeding the limits of their func-
tions, or by the abuse of their legitimate influence over the
youthful minds, or by propagating harmful doctrines hostile
to public order or subversive of existing governmental in-
stitutions, shall have unmistakably proved their unfitness
for the important office intrusted to them. . . .

No teacher who shall have been removed in this manner
shall be again appointed to a position in any public institu-
tion of learning in another state of the union.

3. Those laws which have for a long period been directed
against secret and unauthorized societies in the universities
shall be strictly enforced. These laws apply especially to
that association established some years since under the
name Universal Students’ Union {Allgemeine BurscheTischaff),
since the very conception of the society implies the utterly
unallowable plan of permanent fellowship and constant
communication between the various universities. The duty
of especial watchfulness in this matter should be impressed
upon the special agents of the government.

The governments mutually agree that such persons as
shall hereafter be shown to have remained in secret or un-
authorized associations, or shall have entered such associa-
tions, shall not be admitted to any public office.

4. No student who shall be expelled from a university
by a decision of the university senate which was ratified or
prompted by the agent of the government, or who shall
have left the institution in order to escape expulsion, shall
be received in any other university. . . .

Europe after the Congress of Vien7ia

549

I. So long as this decree shall remain in force no pub-
lication which appears in the form of daily issues, or as a
serial not exceeding twenty sheets of printed matter, shall
go to press in any state of the union without the previous
knowledge and approval of the state officials.

Writings which do not belong to one of the above-men-
tioned classes shall be treated according to the laws now
in force, or which may be enacted, in the individual states
of the union. . . .

4. Each state of the union is responsible, not only to the
state against which the offense is directly committed, but to
the whole Confederation, for every publication appearing
under its supervision in which the honor or security of
other states is infringed or their constitution or adminis-
tration attacked. . . .

6. The Diet shall have the right, moreover, to suppress
on its own authority, without being petitioned, such writ-
ings included in Article i, in whatever German state they
may appear, as, in the opinion of a commission appointed
by it, are inimical to the honor of the union, the safety of
individual states, or the maintenance of peace and quiet in
Germany. There shall be no appeal from such decisions,
and the governments involved are bound to see that they
are put into execution. . . .

7. When a newspaper or periodical is suppressed by a
decision of the Diet, the editor thereof may not within a
period of five years edit a similar publication in any state
of the union.

1. Within a fortnight, reckoned from the passage of this
decree, there shall convene, under the auspices of the Con-
federation, in the city and federal fortress of Mayence, an
extraordinary commission of investigation to consist of
seven members, including the chairman.

2. The object of the commission shall be a joint investi-
gation, as thorough and extensive as possible, of the facts
relating to the origin- and manifold ramifications of the
revolutionary plots and demagogical associations directed

Press law.

Establish-
ment of an
investigating
committee at
Mayence.

550 Readmgs in European History

against the existing constitution and the internal peace both
of the union and of the individual states ; of the existence of
which plots more or less clear evidence is to be had already,
or may be produced in the course of the investigation. . . .

lo. The central investigating commission is to furnish
the Diet from time to time with a report of the results of
the investigation, which is to be carried out as speedily as
possible. . . .

In spite of the hampering policy of Metternich and
the failure of the constitution of the German Confeder-
ation to satisfy the demands of the liberal party, some
progress toward the unification of Germany was made
through the establishment in 1828 of a customs union
in northern Germany, which gradually extended so as
finally to include almost all the German states. A Ger-
man writer humorously describes the superiority of this
union to that established by the Congress of Vienna.
Matches, fennel, lampreys, cows, cheese, madder, paper,
ham, and boots have served to bind together the hearts
of the nation as the diplomats at Vienna had not suc-
ceeded in doing.

Schwefelholzer, Fenchel, Bricken,

Kiihe, Kase, Krapp, Papier,

Schinken, Scheren, Stiefel, Wicken,

Wolle, Seife, Garn und Bier ;

Pfefferkuchen, Lumpen, Trichter,

Niisse, Tabak, Glaser, Flachs,

Leder, Salz, Schmalz, Puppen, Lichter,

Rettich, Rips, Raps, Schnaps, Lachs, Wachs !

Und ihr andern deutschen Sachen,

Tausend Dank sei euch gebracht !

Was kein Geist je konnte machen,

Ei, das habet ihr gemacht :

462. Verses
on the impor-
tance of the
Zollverein.

Europe after the Congress of Vie^ma

551

Denn ihr habt ein Band gewunden
Um das deutsche Vaterland,

Und die Herzen hat verbunden
Mehr, als unser Bund, dies Band.

IV. Metternich’s Fight against Liberalism

After the battle of Waterloo, Austria, Russia, Prussia,
and England concluded a secret treaty, November 20,
1815, in which they agreed to continue their alliance
against any new attempt upon the part of France to
disturb the repose of Europe. Metternich, who was
the soul of the reactionary policy, was bent upon set-
ting up a permanent barrier to “ revolution,” — under
which terrible term he included all tendencies toward
constitutional government. Accordingly Article VI of
the treaty reads :

To facilitate and secure the execution of the present
treaty and to strengthen the bonds which at the present
moment so closely unite the four sovereigns for the happi-
ness of the world, the high contracting parties have agreed
to renew their meetings at fixed periods, either under the
immediate auspices of the sovereigns themselves or by
their respective ministers, for the purpose o£ consulting
upon their common interests and for the consideration of
the measures which, at each of these periods, shall be con-
sidered the most salutary for the repose and prosperity of
nations and for the peace of Europe.^

The uprising, in 1820, of the people in Spain and
Naples against their respective despotic monarchs seemed
to Metternich a natural occasion for one of the proposed

1 The whole of this interesting document is given by Anderson, Con-
stitutions and Documents, pp. 482 sqq.

Metternich
arranges a
system of
international
congresses to
deal with
“ revolution.”

552

Readuigs in Ettropean History

congresses, which met at Troppau. Here a system of
intervention in the internal affairs of those countries
threatening the repose of Europe was agreed upon, and
was justified in a circular note which casts much light
on the policy of the reactionary monarchs who were
under Metternich’s influence.

463. Circu-
lar note of
Troppau set-
ting forth
Mettemich’s
theory of
intervention.

Having been informed of the false and exaggerated
rumors which have been circulated by ill-intentioned and
credulous persons in regard to the results of the confer-
ences at Troppau, the allied courts deem it necessary to
transmit authentic explanations to their representatives at
foreign courts, in order to enable them to refute the errone-
ous ideas to which these rumors have given rise. The brief
report here annexed will enable them to do this. . . .

Troppau, December 8, 1820.

Brief Review of the First Results of the Conferences
AT Troppau

The events which took place in Spain March 8 and at
Naples July 2, as well as the catastrophe in Portugal, could
not but arouse a feeling of the deepest indignation, appre-
hension, and sorrow in those who are called upon to guard
the tranquillity of the nations ; and, at the same time, it
emphasized the necessity of uniting in order to determine
in common the means of checking the misfortunes which
threaten to envelop Europe. It was but natural that these
sentiments should leave a deep impression upon those
powers which had but lately stifled revolution and which
now beheld it once more raise its head.

Nor was it less natural that these powers, in encounter-
ing revolution for the third time, should have recourse to
the same methods which they had employed with so much
success in the memorable struggle which freed Europe
from a yoke she had borne for twenty years. Everything
encouraged the hope that that alliance, formed in the most

Europe after the Congress of Vienna

553

critical circumstances, crowned with the most brilliant suc-
cess, and strengthened by the conventions of 1814, 1815,
and 1818, as it had prepared the way for, established, and
assured the peace of the world, and delivered the European
continent from the military representatives of revolution,
so it would be able to check a new form of oppression, not
less tyrannical and fearful, namely, that of revolt and crime.

Such were the motives and the aim of the meeting at
Troppau. The motives are too obvious to need further
explanation. The aim is so honorable and justifiable that
the best wishes of all right-minded persons will doubtless
accompany the allied courts into the noble arena they are
about to enter. . . .

The powers are exercising an incontestable right in
taking common measures in respect to those states in which
the overthrow of the government through a revolt, even if
it be considered simply as a dangerous example, may result
in a hostile attitude toward all constitutions and legitimate
governments. The exercise of this right becomes an urgent
necessity when those who have placed themselves in this
situation seek to extend to their neighbors the ills which
they have brought upon themselves and to promote revolt
and confusion around them. . . .

This is the incontestable fact which the allied courts
have made their point of departure. Hence the representa-
tives of the powers . . . agreed at Troppau upon the plan
of action to be followed in regard to those states in which
the governments had been overturned by violence ; and upon
the pacific or coercive measures which might bring these
states once more into the European alliance, in case the
allies should succeed in exercising a salutary influence. . . .

Nothing could menace more directly the tranquillity of
the neighboring states than the revolution at Naples, gain-
ing ground as it did daily. In view of the fact that the
allied courts could not be attacked so promptly and imme-
diately as these neighboring states, it was deemed expedient
to proceed, in regard to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
according to the principles above enunciated.

Right of the
powers to
interfere in
the internal
affairs of
states threat-
ened by
revolution.

Danger to
the Italian
states from
the revolution
at Naples.

554 Readings in European History

In order to prepare conciliatory measures toward this
end, the monarchs convened at Troppau resolved to ask the
king of the Two Sicilies to meet them at Laibach, with the
single aim of freeing him from all external compulsion and
placing him in the position of mediator between his erring
people and the states whose tranquillity they threaten. . . .

France and England have been requested to cooperate in
these measures, and it is to be anticipated that they will
not refuse, since the principle upon which the request is
based is completely in accord with the treaties which they
have entered into, and affords, moreover, a guarantee of the
fairest and most peaceful intentions.

The system pursued in concert by Prussia, Austria, and
Russia is in no way new. It is based upon the same princi-
ples upon which the conventions rested which created the
alliance of the European states. . . .

Moreover it is needless to prove that the resolutions
taken by the powers are in no way to be attributed to the
idea of conquest, or to any intention of interfering with
the independence of other governments in their internal
administration, or, lastly, to the purpose of preventing
wise improvements freely carried out and in harmony with
the true interests of the people. Their only desire is to
preserve and maintain peace, to deliver Europe from the
scourge of revolution, and to obviate or lessen the ills which
arise from the violation of the precepts of order and
morality. . . .

While Metternich and his allies were intervening to
check reform in southern Europe, the Greeks rose
against their masters and declared themselves a free
and independent state. This was a source of deep sat-
isfaction to the liberal parties in the West, who had
suffered so many disappointments since the opening of
the Congress of Vienna. A constitutional assembly was
convoked in Greece, and, having completed a provisional
constitution, it issued the following manifesto.

Europe after the Congress of Vienna

555

We, descendants of the wise and noble peoples of Hellas,
we who are the contemporaries of the enlightened and civil-
ized nations of Europe, we who behold the advantages
which they enjoy under the protection of the impenetrable
Eegis of the law, find it no longer possible to suffer without
cowardice and self-contempt the cruel yoke of the Otto-
man power which has weighed upon us for more than four
centuries, — a power which does not listen to reason and
knows, no other law than its own will, which orders and dis-
poses everything despotically and according to its caprice.
After this prolonged slavery we have determined to take
arms to avenge ourselves and our country against a frightful
tyranny, iniquitous in its very essence, — an unexampled
despotism to which no other rule can be compared.

The war which we are carrying on against the Turk is
not that of a faction or the result of sedition. It is not
aimed at the advantage of any single part of the Greek
people ; it is a national war, a holy war, a war the object
of which is to reconquer the rights of individual liberty, of
property and honor, — rights which the civilized people of
Europe, our neighbors, enjoy to-day; rights of which the
cruel and unheard-of tyranny of the Ottomans would deprive
us — us alone — and the very memory of which they would
stifle in our hearts.

Are we, then, less reasonable than other peoples, that we
remain deprived of these rights.? Are we of a nature so
degraded and abject that we should be viewed as unworthy
to enjoy them, condemned to remain crushed under a per-
petual slavery and subjected, like beasts of burden or mere
automatons, to the absurd caprice of a cruel tyrant who,
like an infamous brigand, has come from distant regions to
invade our borders? Nature has deeply graven these rights
in the hearts of all men; laws in harmony with nature have
so completely consecrated them that neither three nor four
centuries — nor thousands nor millions of centuries — can
destroy them. Force and violence have been able to re-
strict and paralyze them for a season, but force may once
more resuscitate them in all the vigor which they formerly

464. Procla-
mation of
independence
issued by
the Greek
National
Assembly
(January 27,
1822) .

556

Readings in Eitropean History

enjoyed during many centuries ; nor have we ever ceased in
Hellas to defend these rights by arms whenever opportu-
nity offered.

Building upon the foundation of our natural rights, and
desiring to assimilate ourselves to the rest of the Christians
of Europe, our brethren, we have begun a war against the
Turks, or rather, uniting all our isolated strength, we have
formed ourselves into a single armed body, firmly resolved
to attain our end, to govern ourselves by wise laws, or to be
altogether annihilated, believing it to be unworthy of us, as
descendants of the glorious peoples of Hellas, to live hence-
forth in a state of slavery fitted rather for unreasoning ani-
mals than for rational beings.

Ten months have elapsed since we began this national
war; the all-powerful God has succored us; although we
were not adequately prepared for so great an enterprise, our
arms have everywhere been victorious, despite the power-
ful obstacles which we have encountered and still en-
counter everywhere. We have had to contend with a
situation bristling with difficulties, and we are still engaged
in our efforts to overcome them. It should not, therefore,
appear astonishing that we were not able from the very
first to proclaim our independence and take rank among
the civilized peoples of the earth, marching forward side
by side with them. It was impossible to occupy ourselves
with our political existence before we had established our
independence. We trust these reasons may justify, in the
eyes of the nations, our delay, as well as console us for the
anarchy in which we have found ourselves. . . .

Epidaurus, January if, 1822:

the First Year of Independence.

The first signal disturbance of the arrangements made
by the Congress of Vienna was the revolt of the former
Austrian Netherlands from the rule of the king of
Holland, to whom the Congress had assigned them.
The creation of the present kingdom of Belgium is

Europe after tJie Congress of Vienna

557

described in an address read at the opening session of the
Belgian congress, November lo, 1830.

In the name of the Belgian people, the provisional gov-
» ernment opens an assembly of the representatives of the
nation. The nation has confided to these representatives
the august mission of founding, on the broad and solid
basis of liberty, the edifice of the new social order which
will be the beginning and the guarantee of durable happi-
ness to Belgium,

You know, gentlemen, that at the time of our union with
Holland a Fundamental Law was presented to an assembly
of notables, chosen by the government, not to examine,
discuss, modify, and finally to accept it and make it the
condition of a compact between the people and the head of
the state, but either to submit to it unconditionally, or to
reject it altogether. It was rejected, as might have been
expected from the good sense and integrity of the Bel-
gians ; but by an unparalleled subterfuge it was neverthe-
less declared to be accepted, and thus it came about that
our country was oppressed by a constitution imposed by
Holland.

If this Fundamental Law had at least been properly
executed in all its provisions, in time, perhaps, and with
the aid of the progress which the arbitrary conduct of the
ministers compelled us daily to make in the career of con-
stitutional opposition, it might have become the hope of
Belgian liberty.

But far from this being the case, freedom of conscience
was violated, education fettered, the press condemned to
be nothing more than an instrument of the government
or forced into silence . . . and the right of petition was
disregarded. The despotic imposition of a privileged lan-
guage, . . . and an enormous debt and expenditure, were
the only portion which Holland brought to us at the time
of our deplorable union. Add to these grievances taxes,
overwhelming by their amount and still more by the manner
in which they were apportioned, laws always voted by the

465. Rea-
sons which
led to the cre-
ation of the
kingdom of
Belgium.

Grievances of
the Belgian
provinces
against
Holland.

558

Readings in European History

A. Refer-
ences.

Dutch for Holland only and always against Belgium, . . .
and, lastly, the most offensive partiality in the distribu-
tion of civil and military appointments by a government in
whose eye the name of Belgian was a disgrace; in a word,
all Belgium treated as a conquered province, as a colony, —
everything rendered a revolution necessary and inevitable
and hastened its approach. Such just and real grievances
could only lead to one result.

We had risen against despotism to reconquer our rights,
and we were treated by tyranny as rebels. Our cities were
burned ; the most barbarous treatment was inflicted even
upon old men and upon women ; the rights of humanity,
the laws of war, were trampled underfoot. Such conduct
testifies to the ferocity of our enemy and calls down bless-
ings on the victory of the people which has cleared our
territory of them.

The fruit of this victory has been independence. The
people have proclaimed it through us, and have called you
together, gentlemen, as the organ of its wishes to establish
it forever.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Congress of Vienna and the Reconstruction of Europe : Seignobos,
Political History of Europe since 1814, Chapter I, pp. 1-8; Andrews,
The Historical Development of Modern Europe, Vol. I, Chapter I,
pp. 86-133; Phillips, Modern Europe from i8ip, Chapter I, pp. 1-13.

Restoration and July Revolution in France: Phillips, Chapter II,
pp. 22-36; Chapter VIII, pp. 168-185; Andrews, Vol. I, Chapter II,
pp. 134-179; Seignobos, Chapter V, pp. 103-132.

The German Confederation and Metternich’s Policy: Phillips,
Chapter III, pp. 37-56; Seignobos, Chapter XII, pp. 374-386;
Andrews, Vol. I, Chapter VI, pp. 229-241.

Struggle for Italian Unity: Seignobos, Chapter XI, pp. 326-339;
Andrews, Vol. I, Chapter V, pp. 180-228.

Independence of Greece: Phillips, Chapter VII, pp. 135-167;
Seignobos, Chapter XXI, pp. 648-654 ; Fyffe, Modern Europe, Chapter
XV, pp. 525-602.

[For the general bibliography of the period since 1815, see the close
of the following chapter.]

CHAPTER XL

UNIFICATION OF GERMANY AND ITALY

I. Revolution of 1848 in France: Napoleon III

The provisional government established in Paris after
the mob_had attacked the Tuileries, February 24, 1848,
immediately issued the following proclamation.

In the name of the French people : *

A reactionary and oligarchical government has just been
overthrown by the heroism of the people of Paris. That
government has fled, leaving behind it a trail of blood that
forbids it ever to retrace its steps.

The blood of the people has flowed as in July ; but this
time this noble people shall not be deceived. It has won
a national and popular government in accord with the rights,
the progress, and the will of this great and generous nation.

A provisional government, the result of pressing necessity
and ratified by the voice of the people and of the deputies
of the departments, in the session of February 24, is for
the moment invested with the task of assuring and organ-
izing the national victory. It is composed of Messieurs
Dupont (de I’Eure), Lamartine, Cremieux, Arago (of the
Institute), Ledru-Rollin, Garnier-Pages, Marie, Armand
Marrast, Louis Blanc, Ferdinand Flocon, and Albert (a
workingman).

These citizens have not hesitated a moment to accept the
patriotic commission which is imposed upon them by the
pressure of necessity. With the capital of France on fire,
the justification for the present provisional government must
be sought in the public safety. All France will understand
this and will lend it the support of its patriotism. Under
559

466. The

overthrow

of the

Orleanist

monarchy is

proclaimed

by the

provisional

government

(February

24, 1848).

560

Readings in Eiu'opean History

Provisional
government
desires a
republic.

467. Decrees
of the
provisional
government
relating to
the working-
men (Febru-
ary 25, 1848).

Labor unions
sanctioned.

Suppression
of the
civil list.

the popular government which the provisional government
proclaims, every citizen is a magistrate.

Frenchmen, it is for you to give to the world the exam-
ple which Paris has given to France ; prepare yourselves by
order and by confidence in your destiny for the firm institu-
tions which you are about to be called upon to establish.

The provisional government wishes to establish a repub-
lic, — subject, however, to ratification by the people, who
shall be immediately consulted.

The unity of the nation (formed henceforth of all the
classes of citizens who compose it) ; the government of the
nation by itself ; liberty, equality, and fraternity, for fun-
damental principles, and “the people” for our emblem and
watch.word : these constitute the democratic government
which France owes to itself, and which our efforts shall
secure for it.

The workingmen and their leaders played an impor-
tant part in the February revolution. This fact is em-
phasized by the decrees in the interest of the laboring
classes which were issued by the provisional government
on the day following its creation.

The provisional government of the French republic de-
crees that the Tuileries shall serve hereafter as a home for
the veterans of labor.

The provisional government of the French republic
pledges itself to guarantee the means of subsistence of the
workingman by labor.

It pledges itself to guarantee labor to all citizens.

It recognizes that workingmen ought to enter into asso-
ciations among themselves in order to enjoy the advantage
of their labor.

The provisional government returns to the workingmen,
to whom it rightfully belongs, the million which was about
to fall due upon the civil list.

Unification of Germany and Italy 561

The provisional government of the French republic decrees
that all articles pledged at the pawn shops since the first of
February, consisting of linen, garments, or clothes, etc., upon
which the loan does not exceed ten francs, shall be given
back to those who pledged them. The minister of finance is
ordered to meet the payments incidental to the execution of
the present edict.

The provisional government of the republic decrees the
immediate establishment of national workshops. The min-
ister of public works is charged with the execution of the
present decree.

The formal proclamation of the second French repub-
lic is very characteristic of the momentary situation.

In the name of the French people :

Citizens : royalty, under whatever form, is abolished ; no
more legitimism, no more Bonapartism, no regency.

The provisional government has taken all the measures
necessary to render impossible the return of the former
dynasty or the advent of a new dynasty.

The republic is proclaimed.

The people are united.

All the forts which surround the capital are ours.

The brave garrison of Vincennes is a garrison of brothers.

Let us retain that old republican flag whose three colors
made with our fathers the circuit of the globe.

Let us show that this symbol of equality, of liberty, and
of fraternity is at the same time the symbol of order — of
order the more real, the more durable, since justice is its
foundation and the whole people its instrument.

The people have already realized that the provisioning of
Paris requires a freer circulation in the streets, and those
who have erected the barricades have already in several
places made openings large enough for the passage of wagons
and carts. Let this example be imitated everywhere. Let
Paris reassume its accustomed appearance and trade its
activity and confidence. . . .

Return of

pawned

articles.

Establish-
ment of
national
workshops
(February
26).

468. The

second

French

republic is

proclaimed

(February

26, r848).

Louis Napo-
leon becomes
a candidate
for the presi-
dency of the
new French
republic.

469. Louis
Napoleon
explains his
position to
the voters
of France
(November
29, 1848).

562 Readings in European History

Although Louis Napoleon had, after the last of his
two early and futile attempts to make himself emperor,
been imprisoned, then exiled, he was, after the February
revolution, elected a member of the Legislative Body.
When it came to choosing a president under the new
constitution, he was naturally considered as a candidate,
and issued the following campaign manifesto (November,
1848).

Louis Napoleon to his fellow-citizens :

In order to recall me from exile, you have elected me a
representative of the people ; on the eve of choosing a chief
magistrate for the republic my name presents itself to you
as a symbol of order and security.

Those proofs of so honorable a confidence are, I am well
aware, addressed to my name rather than to myself, who, as
yet, have done nothing for my country ; but the more the
memory of the Emperor protects me and inspires your suf-
frages, the more I feel compelled to acquaint you with my
sentiments and principles. There must be no equivocation
between us.

I am moved by no ambition which dreams one day of
empire and war, the next of the application of subversive
theories. Brought up in free countries, disciplined in the
school of misfortune, I shall ever remain faithful to the
duties which your suffrages and the will of the Assembly
impose upon me.

If elected president, I shall shrink from no danger, from
no sacrifice, in the defense of society, which has been so
outrageously assailed. I shall devote myself wholly and
without reservation to the consolidation of the republic, so
that it may be wise in its laws, honest in its aims, great and
strong in its deeds. My greatest honor would be to hand on
to my successor, after four years of office, the public power
consolidated, its liberties intact, and a genuine progress
assured. ...

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.

Unification of Germany and Italy

563

Before the expiration of his four years’ term, Louis
Napoleon, by the coup d'etat of December, 1851, secured
an extension of his presidency for ten years. He was
not satisfied, however, until he had won the title of
Emperor. In September, 1852, he undertook a tour
through the southern provinces in order to test public
opinion. Many suggestions had reached him encouraging
him to assume the imperial crown, and frequently on his
journey he was received with the cry, “ Long live the
emperor ! ” In his speech at Bordeaux, October 9, 1852,
he definitely announced his belief that France was ready
for the abolition of the second republic.

The purpose of this journey, as you know, was to see
for myself our beautiful provinces of the south and familiar-
ize myself with their needs. It has, however, given rise to a
much more important result. Indeed, — and I say it with a
candor as far removed from arrogance as from false mod-
esty, — never has a people testified in a manner more direct,
spontaneous, and unanimous, the longing to be freed from
anxiety as to the future by concentrating in a single person
an authority which shall accord with their desires. They
realize now both the false hopes with which they have been
deluded and the dangers which threaten them. . . .

France to-day encompasses me with her sympathies be-
cause I do not belong to the group of dreamers. In order
to benefit the country it is not necessary to resort to new
systems, but, above all, to establish confidence in the present
and security for the future. This is why France seems to
wish to revert to the empire.

There is, nevertheless, one apprehension, and that I shall
set at rest. A spirit of distrust leads certain persons to say
that the empire means war. I say, the empire means peace.
France longs for peace, and if France is satisfied the world
is tranquil. Glory is rightly handed down hereditarily, but
not war. . . .

Louis Napo-
leon deter-
mines to win
the imperial
title.

470. Louis
Napoleon’s
Bordeaux
address
(October 9,

1852).

Napoleon’s
policy of
peace.

471. Metter-
nich informs
the tsar of
the March
revolution
in Vienna.

564 Readings in European History

I concede, nevertheless, that, like the Emperor, I have
many conquests to make. I would, like him, conquer, for
the sake of harmony, the warring parties and bring into the
great popular current the wasteful and conflicting eddies. I
would conquer, for the sake of religion, morality, and mate-
rial ease, that portion of the population, still very numerous,
which, in the midst of a country of faith and belief, hardly
knows the precepts of Christ ; which, in the midst of the most
fertile country of the world, is hardly able to enjoy the primary
necessities of life. We have immense uncultivated districts
to bring under cultivation, roads to open, harbors to con-
struct, rivers to render navigable, canals to finish, and our
network of railroads to bring to completion. . . .

This is what I understand by the empire, if the empire is
to be reestablished. These are the conquests which I con-
template, and all of you who surround me, who, like myself,
wish the good of our common country, you are my soldiers.

II. The Revolution of 1848 in Germany and Italy

The February revolution in France was speedily fol-
lowed by an uprising of the liberal party in Vienna,
which, on March 13, forced Metternich to resign the
influential position which he had held for so many years.
The next day he wrote an account of the affair to Tsar
Nicholas, who, he well knew, would heartily sympathize
with him.

Sire, the most invincible of forces, that of circumstances,
has put an end to my long political life. Your Imperial
Majesty has always deigned to honor me with that form of
esteem which has the highest value in my eyes, namely, con-
fidence in my principles and such encouragement as the
upright man should seek in his own conscience. To-day
once more my conscience impels me as a duty to lay before
your Imperial Majesty the expression of my profound grati-
tude for the sympathy which I believe that I have merited

U^iification of Germany and Italy 565

on your part, and of which during the whole course of your
Majesty’s glorious reign you have deigned to give me so
many proofs.

Europe, sire, is involved in a crisis which much exceeds
the bounds of political movements. It is a crisis in the
social body. I foresaw the event ; I have combated it con-
sistently during a ministry of well-nigh forty years. To check
the torrent is no longer within the power of man. It can
only be guided.

My efforts have been in vain. And as I do not know how
to steer a middle course, or to remain in a situation repug-
nant to my moral sense, I have retired from the scene. Too
advanced in years to hope to witness the events which may
ultimately, according to my views, put an end to the present
crisis, it only remains for me to offer to my master and to
my country the good wishes which I shall not cease to enter-
tain for their inseparable happiness. . . .

Condescend, sire, to retain a kind remembrance of me
and permit me to assure you of the most profound respect.
I remain, your Majesty, etc., etc.,

Metternich.

Vienna, March 14, 1848.

After a few months’ triumph the revolutionary gov-
ernment in Vienna was overthrown by the bombardment
and capture of the city, October, 1848, by Windischgratz,
the emperor’s general, who had just suppressed the
Bohemian revolution. The city had decided to surren-
der, when it was encouraged to a last futile resistance
by the arrival of an army from H ungary ready to for-
ward the revolution. An Englishman, an eyewitness,
stationed outside the city, published the following nar-
rative in the English newspapers.

The beautiful street leading to the Prater [a park] had
been the scene of the hardest fighting of all, as it had been
fortified by a succession of barricades, built up to the first-
floor windows in a half-moon shape, with regular embrasures

566

Readings in European History

472. Vienna

retaken

by the

emperor’s

troops under

Windisch-

gratz

(October 31,
1848).

and planted with cannon. This was strewn with the dead
bodies of men and horses ; but they, and the pools of blood
all about, did not strike us so much as the horrid smell of
roast flesh arising from the half-burned bodies of rebels killed
in the houses fired by Congreve rockets, which we saw used
by the troops with terrible effect. Half of the houses in this
beautiful suburb are thus burned down, while the other half
are riddled with shot and shell. On every side we may see
weeping wives, sisters, and daughters, picking, literally piece-
meal, out of the ruins the half-consumed bodies of their
relatives.

On Sunday evening, the 29th, the city, dreading a bom-
bardment from the Belvedere, agreed to surrender; but
the capitulation was shamefully violated when early the
next morning the approach of the Hungarians to raise the
siege was signaled from the tower of the cathedral. Then
came the real crisis. . . . We were fired upon continually
from the ramparts ; and I for the first time literally tasted
blood, which was dashed over my face and clothes, when
a round shot carried off the head of an artilleryman by
my side.

All this time the roar of cannon, the whizzing of rockets,
and the roll of musketry in our rear told us that the Hun-
garian army had joined battle ; while in our front, from all
the ramparts, tops of houses, and churches, the rebels were
firing signal guns and waving flags to cheer them on. It was
a beautiful clear, sunshiny autumn day ; and all felt that
there were trembling in the balance not only the fate of the
grand old Austrian empire {an Siegen und an Ehreti reich)
— the monarchy of Charles V and Maria Theresa, and so
long the bulwark of Christendom against the Turk — but
with it the peace and safety of Europe.

At length the firing behind us gradually slackened and
then died away ; and towards sunset the victorious imperial-
ists marched back from the field of battle, having utterly
routed the Hungarians and driven three thousand of them
into the Danube, which will roll their bodies down to Pesth,
a fearful tiding of their defeat. You may fancy what cheers

Unification of Germany and Italy

567

arose from the imperialists and what yells of despair from
the rebels, whose offers of a conditional surrender were now
scornfully rejected.

Two months before the overthrow of Metternich and a
month before the February revolution in France, it was
clear that the Austrian government was likely to have
trouble with its subjects in Italy. The English consul
general writes from Venice, January 18, 1848 :

Though the Venetian provinces have hitherto been much
more tranquil than the provinces of Lombardy, they appear
now disposed to make common cause with the latter, and
it is surprising to see the change that a short time has
brought about.

When I left Venice, early in November last, everything
was perfectly quiet, and although some little excitement had
been produced by the speeches delivered by a few persons
during the sitting of the Scientific Congress, society was
upon its accustomed footing. Now, however, it is quite dif-
ferent ; the Venetians have adopted the system of the Milan-
ese, and there is hardly a Venetian house into which an
Austrian is admitted. This determination has been come to
very unwillingly by many, but they act under a system of
intimidation that is carried on to a degree scarcely credible.
Persons supposed to have a leaning towards the government
are held up to public execration, and their names are written
upon the walls as traitors to their country. . . .

Should a collision ensue between the troops and the people,
— and a very slight thing may bring it on, — the conse-
quences, I fear, would be extremely serious.

The government at Vienna, however, had been warned
by disturbances in Milan early in the month, and Mar-
shal Radetzky encouraged his troops by the following
declaration, issued in Milan on the same day that the
above letter was written from Venice.

Situation
in Italy.

473. The
signs of
revolt in
Venetia and
Lombardy
(January,
1848).

The Aus-
trians ostra-
cized in
northern
Italy;

568

Readings in European History

474. Marshal
Radetzky
encourages
his soldiers.

Milan, January i8, 1848.

His Majesty the emperor, being determined according to
his rights and duties to defend the Lombardo- Venetian king-
dom, as well as every other part of his dominions, against
all attacks of an enemy, either from without or from within,
has permitted me to make this, his resolve, known to all the
troops of the army stationed in Italy. He is persuaded that
his intentions will meet with the firmest support in the valor
and fidelity of the army.

Soldiers, you have heard the words of the emperor ; I am
proud to make them known to you. Against your fidelity and
your valor the efforts of fanaticism and the infidel spirit of
innovation will be broken like brittle glass against solid rock.
The sword which I have borne with honor in so many bat-
tles during sixty-five years is still eager for action. I shall
know how to make use of it to defend the tranquillity of a
country a short time since most happy, and which a mad
faction now seeks to plunge into misery.

Soldiers, our emperor relies upon you ; your old general
trusts you : let this suffice. Let them not force us to unfold
the banner of the double-headed eagle, for the strength of
its talons is yet unimpaired. Let our motto be. Defense and
tranquillity to faithful and friendly citizens and destruction
to the enemy who shall dare with a treacherous hand to dis-
turb the peace and welfare of nations.

The present order of the day shall be announced to all
the corps in their respective languages.

On March 22, 1848, Radetzky, in spite of his boasts,
was forced to evacuate Milan, and the provisional govern-
ment which had been established there appealed to the
king of Sardinia for aid.

Sacred Majesty : March 23, 1848.

We have vanquished the enemy who occupied the city.
He left the castle last night and marched towards Verona,
but he is not yet far from the capital and is marking every

Unification of Germany and Italy 569

step with slaughter and plunder. Our citizens have made
heroic efforts, and with very few resources they have repulsed
the pride of an enemy confident in his strength. . . .

Although the city is now free, the speedy and potent aid
of your Majesty is none the less important. The provisional
government therefore implores your Majesty to hasten to
assist us by every means. Your Majesty will thus be a
benefactor to the sacred cause of Italian independence and
brotherhood, and will surely receive the applause and grati-
tude of this people. We would willingly add more, but our
position as a provisional government does not allow us to
anticipate the wishes of the nation, which are, without
doubt, all directed toward the furtherance of the cause of
Italian unity.

The Austrian government was able, as we have seen,
to put down, in October, 1848, the revolt in Vienna, and
then had a free hand to reconquer its Italian provinces.
The intervention of Charles Albert was unsuccessful,
and after his final defeat at N ovara, March 23, 1849,
his abdication was proclaimed in the following manner.

Proclamation of Eugene, prince of Savoy- Carignan, lieutenant

general of his Majesty :

I have a sad message to communicate to you. The king,
Charles Albert, after having faced with intrepidity the balls
of the enemy, would not consent, in view of the reverses of
our armies, to bow to ill fortune. He has preferred to crown
his life by a new sacrifice. On March 23 he abdicated in
favor of the duke of Savoy. The gratitude of his people
toward him will know no end, nor our respectful attachment.
Let us rally around our new king, in battle a worthy rival of
the paternal virtues, and the stanch guardian of the constitu-
tional liberties granted by his august father. Long live the
king, Victor Emmanuel !

475. Milan,
after revolt-
ing from
Austria,
appeals to
the king of
Sardinia
for aid
(March 23,
1848).

476. Procla-
mation of
Charles
Albert’s
abdication
(March 26,
1849).

Turin, March 26.

477. Mes-
sage of the
Diet to
the new
National
Assembly at
Frankfort
(May i8,
1848).

570 Readings in European History

While Lombardy and Venetia were trying vainly, with
the help of the king of Sardinia, to free themselves
from the yoke of Austria, the Germans were busy draw-
ing up a new constitution, which they trusted would at
last make a nation out of the various German states so
loosely united by the union of 1815. On the occasion
of the opening of the National Assembly at Frankfort,
the Diet of the old Confederation sent to the new
Assembly the following graceful, if rather forced, mes-
sage of congratulation.

The force of extraordinary events, the ardent desire which
has loudly manifested itself throughout our whole fatherland,
together with the summons on the part of the several German
governments which these have called forth, have combined
to bring into being in this momentous hour an Assembly
such as has never before been seen in all our history.

Our old political life has been stirred to its very depths
and, greeted by the acclamations and confidence of the
entire German people, the German parliament, new and
grand, emerges into life.

The German governments and their common organ, the
Diet, united with the German people in a common love for
our great fatherland, and gladly yielding to the spirit of the
time, extend a hand of welcome to the representatives of
the nation and wish them happiness and prosperity.

But while the members of the Frankfort Assembly
laboriously worked out a constitution, conditions became
more and more unfavorable to their hopes of a politieal
regeneration of Germany. Austria once more regained
its former influence and when, a year later, the Assembly
offered the imperial erown to the timid Frederick William
of Prussia, he naturally declined it. He proposed, never-
theless, that Prussia should join the other German states

Unification of Germany and Italy 571

in preparing a revision of the constitution drawn up by
the deputies at Frankfort, who had been very generally
discredited by the conduct of the radical and republican
factions.

To my People :

Taking as a pretense the interests of Germany, the ene-
mies of the fatherland have raised the standard of revolt,
first in the neighboring Saxony, then in several districts of
south Germany. To my deep chagrin, even in parts of our
own land some have permitted themselves to be seduced
into following this standard and attempting, in open rebel-
lion against the legal government, to overturn the order of
things established by both divine and human sanction. In
so serious and dangerous a crisis I am moved publicly to
address a word to my people.

I was not able to return a favorable reply to the offer of
a crown on the part of the German National Assembly,
because the Assembly has not the right, without the con-
sent of the German governments, to bestow the crown which
they tendered me, and, moreover, because they offered the
crown upon condition that I would accept a constitution
which could not be reconciled with the rights and safety of
the German states.

I have exhausted every means to reach an understanding
with the German National Assembly. . . . Now the Assembly
has broken with Prussia. The majority of its members are
no longer those men upon whom Germany looked with pride
and confidence. The greater part of the deputies voluntarily
left the Assembly when they saw that it was on the road to
ruin, and yesterday I ordered all the Prussian deputies who
had not already withdrawn to be recalled. The other gov-
ernments will do the same.

A party now dominates the Assembly which is in league
with the terrorists. While they urge the unity of Germany
as a pretense, they are really fighting the battle of god-
lessness, perjury, and robbery, and kindling a war against

478. The
king of
Prussia
refuses the
crown ten-
dered him
by the
Frankfort
Assembly
(May 15,
1849).

Conduct of
the republi-
can radicals.

572

Readings in European History

479. Napo-
leon III
justifies his
intervention
in Italy.

monarchy; but if monarchy were overthrown it would carry
with it the blessings of law, liberty, and property. The hor-
rors committed in Dresden, Breslau, and Elberfeld under the
banner of German unity afford a melancholy proof of this.
New horrors are occurring and are in prospect.

While such crimes have put an end to the hope that the
Frankfort Assembly can bring about German unity, I have,
with a fidelity and persistence suiting my royal station, never
lost hope. My government has taken up with the more im-
portant German states the work on the German constitution
begun by the Frankfort Assembly.^ . . .

This is my method. Only madness or deception will dare,
in view of these facts, to assert that I have given up the
cause of German unity, or that I am untrue to my earlier
convictions and assurances. . . .

Charlottenburg, May 15, 1849.

Frederick William.

III. Establishment of the Kingdom of Italy

It was left for Cavour and Victor Emmanuel to carry
on the work of Italian unification which Charles Albert
had begun, Napoleon III, in coming to the aid of the
Italians, explained his motives to France in a proclama-
tion of May 3, 1859.

Frenchmen, Austria in ordering her army to invade the
territory of the king of Sardinia, our ally, has declared war
upon us. She has thus violated treaties and justice, and
threatens our frontiers. All the great powers have pro-
tested against this aggression.

Piedmont having accepted conditions which should have
maintained peace, one cannot but inquire what can be the
reason for this sudden invasion on Austria’s part. It is
because Austria has brought matters to such a pass that

1 Prussia’s plans were ignominiously given up in the face of Austria’s
opposition.

Unification of Genna7iy and Italy 573

either she must dominate as far as the Cottian Alps, or Italy
must be freed to the Adriatic ; for every corner of territory
which remains independent in that whole region is a menace
to her authority.

Hitherto moderation has been the rule of my conduct ;
now an aggressive policy becomes my duty. Let France
arm herself and say to Europe with determination : “ We
do not wish for conquest, but we are resolved to maintain
without flinching our national and traditional policy; we
observe treaties on condition that they shall not be violated
to our disadvantage ; we respect the territory and the rights
of neutral powers, but openly avow our sympathy for a people
whose history is bound up with ours, and who groan under
foreign oppression.”

France has shown her hatred of anarchy ; she has been
pleased to give me an authority strong enough to render
powerless the abettors of disorder and the incorrigible mem-
bers of former factions who have not hesitated to form
alliances with our enemies ; but she has not, on that account,
abandoned her function as a civilizing power. Her natural
allies have always been those who desire the improvement
of humanity, and when she draws her sword it is not in
order to domineer, but to liberate.

The purpose of this war is, then, to restore Italy to her-
self, and not simply to change her master ; and we shall have
upon our frontiers a friendly people who will owe their in-
dependence to us. We are not going into Italy to foment
disorder, nor to disturb the authority of the Holy Father
whom we have replaced upon his throne, but to protect him
against that foreign oppression which weighs upon the
whole peninsula, and to participate in establishing order
there which shall satisfy all legitimate interests. We are, in
short, about to enter that classic land rendered illustrious
by so many victories. We shall find there traces of our
forefathers, of whom God grant we may prove ourselves
worthy. . . .

Napoleon.

Palace of the Tuileries, May 3, 1859.

574

Readings in European History

480. Victor
Emmanuel
reviews the
events of
1859-1860.

Cession of
Savoy and
Nice to
France.

Victor
Emmanuel’s
attitude
toward the
Church.

In spite of the fact that, soon after the war began,
Napoleon abruptly concluded a truce with Austria, the
work of Italian unity went on, and Victor Emmanuel
was able to report important progress in his address at
the opening of the Sardinian parliament, April 2, i860.

The last time that I opened this parliament, in the midst
of the travails of Italy and dangers to the state, faith in
divine justice encouraged me to prophesy a happy issue for
us. In a very short space of time an invasion has been
repelled ; Lombardy has been freed, thanks to the glorious
exploits of our heroes, and central Italy has been delivered,
thanks to the remarkable courage 'of its inhabitants; and
to-day the representatives of right and of the hopes of the
nation are assembled about me.

We owe many benefits to a magnanimous ally, to the
bravery of his soldiers as well as ours, to the self-abnegation
of the volunteers, and to the harmony of the various peoples ;
and we render thanks to God, for without superhuman aid
these enterprises, memorable not only for our own gener-
ation but for ages to come, could not have been achieved.

Out of gratitude to France for the services she has ren-
dered to Italy, and in order to consolidate the union of the
two nations, which have a community of origin, of principles,
and of destiny, some sacrifice was necessary; I have made
that one which costs most to my own heart. Subject to the
vote of the people and the approbation of the parliament,
. . . I have agreed to a treaty providing for the reunion of
Savoy and of the district of Nice to France.

We still have many difficulties to overcome, but, sustained
by public opinion and by the love of the people, I will not
permit any right or liberty to be infringed or diminished.

Although I am as consistent in my respect toward the
supreme head of our religion as the Catholic rulers, my an-
cestors, have always shown themselves, nevertheless, should
the ecclesiastical authority resort to spiritual arms in sup-
port of its temporal interests, I will, relying upon a pure

Vilification of Germany and Italy 575

conscience and the traditions of my forefathers, find strength
to maintain civil liberty and my authority, for the exercise of
which I owe an account only to God and to my people. . . .

The spirit of Garibaldi is clearly seen in his own ac-
count, here much condensed, of his departure for Sicily
with his thousand warriors, and of his capture of Naples.

Once more, Sicily, it was thine to awaken sleepers, to
drag them from the lethargy in which the stupefying poison
of diplomatists and doctrinaires had sunk them, — slumber-
ers who, clad in armor not their own, confided to others the
safety of their country, thus keeping her dependent and
degraded.

Austria is powerful, her armies are numerous ; several for-
midable neighbors are opposed, on account of petty dynastic
aims, to the resurrection of Italy. The Bourbon^ has one
hundred thousand soldiers. Yet what matter ? The hearts
of twenty-five millions throb and tremble with the love of
their country. ...

O noble Thousand ! In these days of shame and misery
I love to remember you. Turning to you, the mind feels
itself rise above this mephitic atmosphere of robbery and
intrigue, relieved to remember that, though the majority of
your gallant band have scattered their bones over the battle-
fields of liberty, there yet remain enough to represent you,
ever ready to prove to your insolent detractors that all are
not traitors and cowards — all are not shameless self-seekers,
in this land of tyrants and slaves!

Yet sail on, sail on fearlessly, “Piemonte” and “Lom-
bardo,”— noble vessels, manned by the noblest of crews.
History will remember your illustrious names in spite of
calumny. Sail on, sail on ; ye bear the Thousand who in
later days will become a million, — in that day when the
blindfolded masses shall understand that the priest is an
impostor and tyrannies a monstrous anachronism. How
glorious were thy Thousand, O Italy, fighting against the

1 1.e. the king of Naples.

481. Gari-
baldi de-
scribes his
Sicilian
expedition
and the
capture
of Naples
(September-
October,
i860) .

(From his
Memoirs.)

Garibaldi’s
dislike of
Church and
monarchy.

576

Readings in European History

plumed and gilded agents of despotism and driving them
before them like sheep ! glorious in their motley array, just
as they came from their offices and workshops at the trumpet
call of duty, in the student’s coat and hat or the modest garb
of the mason, carpenter, or smith. . . .

After their successful operations in Sicily, Garibaldi
led his troops to the mainland.

The first of October dawned on the plains of the ancient
capital of Campagna upon a hideous tumult, a fratricidal
conflict. On the side of the Bourbons, it is true, foreign
mercenaries were numerous, — Bavarians, Swiss, and others
belonging to the nations who for centuries had been accus-
tomed to look upon this Italy of ours as their pleasure
ground. This crew, under the guidance and with the bless-
ings of the priest, have always been accustomed, by sheer
right of the strongest, to cut the throats of the Italians,
trained from childhood by the priest to bow the knee to
them. But it is only too certain that the greater number of
the men who fought on the slopes of Tifata were sons of
this unhappy country driven to butcher one another, — one
side led by a young king, the child of crime, the other fight-
ing for the sacred cause of their country. . . .

The enemy, after an obstinate combat, were routed all
along the line and retired in disorder within the walls of
Capua about five p.m., their retreat being covered by the
guns of that fortress. About the same time Bixio announced
to me the victory of his right wing over the Bourbon troops,
so that I was able to telegraph to Naples, “Victory all along
the line.”

[The next day] the Bourbon troops, taken unawares,
offered but little resistance and were driven back almost at
a run, hotly pursued by the brave Calabrians as far as
Caserta Vecchia. A few of them held this village for a short
time, firing from the windows and from behind the cover
afforded by some ruined walls ; but these were quickly sur-
rounded and made prisoners. ...

Unification of Germany and Italy

577

With the victory of Caserta Vecchia, October 2, the glo-
rious period of our campaign of i860 closes. The Italian
army of the north, sent by Farini and Company to combat
the “ revolution personified ” in us, found us brothers ; and
to this army fell the task of completing the annihilation of
Bourbonism in the Two Sicilies. In order to regulate the
position of our gallant fellow-soldiers, I asked for the recog-
nition of the army of the south as a part of the national
army ; and it was a piece of injustice not to grant my
request. They resolved to enjoy the fruits of conquest while
banishing the conquerors.

When I understood this I handed over to Victor Emmanuel
the dictatorship conferred upon me by the people, pro-
claiming him king of Italy. To him I recommended my
gallant comrades, the thought of whom was the only painful
element of my departure, eager as I was to return to my
solitude.

On the 1 8th of February, 1861, the new parliament
of Italy met at Turin in a large hall temporarily built of
wood. King Victor Emmanuel opened proceedings with
the following address.

Senators and Deputies :

Free and almost entirely united by the wonderful aid of
Divine Providence, the harmonious cooperation of the peo-
ple, and the splendid valor of the army, Italy confides in
our uprightness and wisdom. Upon you it devolves to give
her uniform institutions and a firm foundation. In extend-
ing greater administrative liberty to peoples that have had
various usages and institutions, you will take care that polit-
ical unity, the aspiration of so many centuries, may never
be diminished.

The opinion of civilized nations is favorable to us. The
just and liberal principles now prevailing in the councils of
Europe are favorable to us. Italy herself will in turn become
a guarantee of order and peace, and will once more be an
efficient instrument of universal civilization.

The Sardin-
ian govern-
ment sends
an army
to check
Garibaldi.

Magnani-
mous retire-
ment of
Garibaldi.

482. Victor
Emmanuel’s
address at
the opening
session of
the Italian
parliament
(February
18, 1861).

578

Readings in European History

Accession of
William as
king of
Prussia.

Appreciative
allusion to
Garibaldi’s
band.

The emperor of the French, firmly upholding the maxim
of non-intervention, — a maxim eminently beneficial to us, —
nevertheless deemed it proper to recall his envoy. If this
fact was a cause of chagrin to us, it did not change our sen-
timents of gratitude toward him or diminish our confidence
in his affection for the Italian cause. France and Italy,
with their common origin, traditions, and customs, formed
on the plains of Magenta and Solferino a bond that will
prove indissoluble.

The government and people of England, that ancient
country of freedom, warmly sanction our right to be the arbi-
ters of our own destinies ; and they have lavishly bestowed
upon us their good offices, the grateful remembrances of
which will be imperishable.

A loyal and illustrious prince having ascended the throne
of Prussia, I dispatched to him an ambassador in token of
respect for him personally and of sympathy with the noble
German nation, which I hope will become more and more
secure in the conviction that Italy, being established in her
natural unity, cannot offend the rights or interests of other
nations. . . .

Valiant youths, led on by a captain who has filled with
his name the most distant countries, have made it evident
that neither servitude nor long misfortune has been able to
weaken the fiber of the Italian peoples. These facts have
inspired the nation with great confidence in its own desti-
nies. I take pleasure in manifesting to the first parliament
of Italy the joy that fills my heart as king and soldier.

The first measure proposed was a bill declaring Vic-
tor Emmanuel king of Italy ; this passed almost unani-
mously, with but two votes in the negative. Against this
act the papal government protested.

A Catholic king, forgetful of every religious principle,
despising every right, trampling upon every law, after hav-
ing, little by little, despoiled the august head of the Catho-
lic Church of the greatest and most flourishing portion of

Unification of Germany and Italy

579

his legitimate possessions, has now taken to himself the
title of King of Italy ; with which title he has sought to seal
the sacrilegious usurpations already consummated, — usur-
pations which his government has already manifested its
intention of completing to the detriment of the patrimony
of the apostolic see. Although the Holy Father has sol-
emnly protested as he saw successive attacks made upon
his sovereignty, he is nevertheless under the obligation of
issuing a fresh protest against the assumption of a title
tending to legitimize the iniquity of so many deeds.

It would here be superfluous to recall the sacred charac-
ter of the possessions of the Church’s patrimony and the
right of the supreme pontiff to it, — an incontestable right,
recognized at all times and by all governments. Therefore
the Holy Father will never be able to recognize the title of
King of Italy, arrogated to himself by the king of Sardinia,
since it is opposed to justice and to the sacred property of
the Church. On the contrary, he makes the most ample and
formal protest against such an usurpation.

A few words uttered a short time after by the prime
minister of Italy, Baron Ricasoli, showed that the pope’s
apprehensions were by no means ill-founded. During a
debate in the parliament, Ricasoli, after repudiating the
idea that Italy would ever surrender an inch of Italian
land, said :

But the king’s government sees a territory to defend and
a territory to recover. It sees Rome; it sees Venice! To
the Eternal City and to the Queen of the Adriatic it directs
the thoughts, the hopes, and the energies of the nation.
The government feels the heavy ,task that lies before it ;
with God’s help it will fulfill it. Opportunity matured by
time will open our way to Venice. In the meantime we
think of Rome.

Yes, we will go to Rome. Shall Rome, politically severed
from the rest of Italy, continue to be the center of intrigue

483. Pope
Pius IX’s
attitude
toward the
unification
of Italy.

484. The
Italian
government
looks for-
ward to
winning
both Venice
and Rome.

Readings in Eitropean History

485. King
William ex-
plains to his
people the
cause of the
war with
Austria
(June i8,
1866).

580

and conspiracy, a permanent threat to public order ? To go
to Rome is for the Italians not merely a right ; it is an inex-
orable necessity. The king’s government will be frank and
clear upon this matter, even more than upon any other sub-
ject. We do not wish to go to Rome through insurrectional
movements, — unreasonable, rash, mad attempts, — which
may endanger our former acquisitions and ruin the national
enterprise. We will go to Rome hand in hand with France !

IV. The Austro-Prussian War and the Founding of
THE North German Federation

Bismarck availed himself of the complications involved
in the disposal of Schleswig-Holstein to put Austria in
the wrong. On June 14, 1866, the king of Prussia
declared that Austria had violated the principles upon
which the union of 1815 was founded, and that the
union had, accordingly, ceased to exist. A few days
later William issued a summons to the Prussian people

An mein Volk").

At the instant when Prussia’s army is advancing to a
decisive conflict I am moved to address my people, — the
sons and grandsons of those brave forefathers to whom a
half a century ago my father (now resting in God) spoke the
never-to-be-forgotten words, “ The country is in danger.”
Austria and a great part of Germany are armed against us.

It is but a few years since, when there was a question of
freeing a German land from foreign domination, I volunta-
rily, and without a thought of previous grievances, extended
to the emperor of Austria the hand of friendship. From the
blood shed together on the field of battle I hoped that a
brotherhood in arms would spring which might in turn lead
to a firmer union resting upon mutual respect and gratitude.
This, I trusted, would bring with it that cooperation which
should have as its fruit the domestic welfare of Germany
and the increase of its prestige among the nations.

Unification of Germany and Italy 581

But this hope has been disappointed. Austria will not
forget that its princes once ruled Germany. In the more
youthful but powerfully developing Prussia she refuses to
perceive a natural ally, but sees only a hostile rival. Prus-
sia— so Austria reasons — must be opposed on every occa-
sion, since what is good for Prussia is bad for Austria. The
old, unhappy jealousy has again blazed up. Prussia shall
be weakened, annihilated, dishonored. With Prussia no
treaties are to be observed ; the confederated princes have
not only been roused against Prussia; they have been in-
duced to dissolve the union. Wherever we look throughout
Germany we are surrounded by enemies, whose war cry is,
“Down with Prussia!”

But the spirit of 1813 still lives in my people. Who can
rob us of a single foot of Prussian soil, if we are firmly
resolved to protect the acquisitions of our fathers ; if king
and people are united more firmly than ever by the danger
to the fatherland, and hold it to be their highest and most
sacred duty to risk blood and treasure for her honor ? In
anxious expectation of what has now happened, I have
for years regarded it as the first duty of my royal office to
prepare Prussia’s military resources for a powerful manifesta-
tion. And no Prussian can fail to view, as I do, with confi-
dence and satisfaction the military forces which now protect
our boundaries. With their king at their head the Prussian
people feel themselves, in truth, a nation in arms. Our ene-
mies are deceived when they imagine that Prussia is para-
lyzed by internal discord. Over against the enemy the nation
is a single powerful unit. In the face of the enemy all dif-
ferences disappear and we stand united, whether it be for
good or evil fortune.

I have done all that I could to spare Prussia the burden
and sacrifices of a war : my people know this ; God, who
searches all hearts, knows it. Up to the last moment I have,
in combination with France, England, and Russia, sought
and kept open the way for a peaceful settlement. Austria,
however, was averse to this, and other German states have
openly taken their place at her side.

582

Readmgs in European History

486. Bis-
marck writes
to his wife
about the
battle of
Kbniggratz.

Let it be so. The fault is not mine should my people
have hard battles to fight and mayhap heavy burdens to
bear. No alternative is any longer left us. We must fight
for our very existence. We must engage in a life-and-death
struggle with those who would cast down the Prussia of the
Great Elector, of Frederick the Great ; the Prussia which
emerged victorious from the War of Liberation, from the
position to which the skill and strength of her princes and
the bravery, devotion, and character of her people have
raised her.

Let us petition Almighty God, the director of the history
of nations, the disposer of battles, to bless our arms. • Should
he grant us the victory, we shall then be strong enough to
renew, in a firmer and more beneficent manner, the bonds
which have so loosely bound the German lands together, in
name rather than in fact, and which have now been torn
asunder by those who fear the right and might of the na-
tional spirit.

May God be with us. William.

Berlin, June 18, 1866.

Count Bismarck was able to write to his wife on July 9,
three days after the great and decisive victory of Prussia
at Kbniggratz, as follows ;

Hohenmauth, Monday, July 9.

... It goes well with us — at least, if we are not exces-
sive in our demands and do not think that we have conquered
the world, we shall achieve a peace that is worth while. But
we are as easily elated as we are cast down, and I have the
thankless task of pouring water into the intoxicating wine,
and making it plain that we do not live alone in Europe but
with three neighbors.

The Austrians have taken a stand in Moravia, and we
are at present so rash as to propose that to-morrow our
headquarters shall be on the spot they now occupy. Pris-
oners are still coming in, and one hundred and eighty cannon

Unijicatio7i of Germany and Italy

583

have arrived since the 3d. If they bring on their southern
army, we shall, with God’s gracious aid, beat that, too. Con-
fidence is everywhere. Our soldiers are dears \Unsere Leute
sind zum Kilssen'], — every one of them so heroic, quiet,
obedient, and decent, though with empty stomachs, wet
clothes, wet camp, little sleep, and no soles to their shoes !
They are friendly to all, with no plundering or burning, but
paying what they can, and eating moldy bread. There must
be a goodly stock of fear of God among our common men,
otherwise things could not be as they are. It is hard to get
news of acquaintances ; we are scattered miles apart, and
do not know where to send, and have no one to send.
There are men enough, of course, but no horses. . . .

The king exposed himself a great deal on the 3d, and it
was a good thing that I was with him, for the warnings of
others did not influence him, and no one else would have
dared to talk to him as I did the last time, — and it did the
job, — when a knot of ten cuirassiers and fifteen horses
of the sixth cuirassier regiment were trampling about us in
bloody confusion and the shells buzzed around disagreeably
near his Majesty. The worst of them happily did not go off.
I should, however, rather have had him too venturesome
than to have him show himself overprudent. He was de-
lighted with his troops, and with good reason, so that he did
not seem to notice the whizzing and din about him. He
was as composed as if he were on the Kreuzberg, and kept
finding a new battalion to thank and say good-night to, until
we were nearly within the firing line again. But so much
was said to him of his recklessness that he will be more
careful in the future, so your mind may be at. rest on that
score. I can hardly believe yet that the battle has really
taken place. . . .

Bismarck’s fears that the king and his advisers would
be intoxicated by the brilliant victory over Austria and
would wish to press on, and perhaps lose much in the
end, were justified. He tells in his memoirs how, although
outvoted in the council, he had his own way after all.

Conduct of
William in
the battle.

584

Readings in European History

487. How
Bismarck
held Prussia
in check
after the
victory of
Koniggratz.

Hazard of
continuing
the war.

On July 23, under the presidency of the king, a council
of war was held, in which the question to be decided was
whether we should make peace under the conditions offered
or continue the war. A painful illness from which I was
suffering made it necessary that the council should be held
in my room. On this occasion I was the only civilian in
uniform. I declared it to be my conviction that peace must
be concluded on the Austrian terms, but remained alone in
my opinion ; the king supported the military majority.

My nerves could not stand the strain which had been put
upon them day and night ; I got up in silence, walked into
my adjoining bedchamber, and was there overcome by a
violent paroxysm of tears. Meanwhile I heard the council
dispersing in the next room. I thereupon set to work to com-
mit to paper the reasons which, in my opinion, spoke for
the conclusion of peace, and begged the king, in the event of
his not accepting the advice for which I was responsible,
to relieve me of my functions if the war were continued.

I set out with this document on the following day to
explain it by word of mouth. In the antechamber I found
two colonels with a report on the spread of cholera among
their troops, barely half of whom were fit for service. These
alarming figures confirmed my resolve to make the accept-
ance of the Austrian terms a cabinet question. Besides my
political anxieties, I feared that by transferring operations
to Hungary, the nature of that country, which was well
known to me, would soon make the disease overwhelming.
The climate, especially in August, is dangerous ; there is
great lack of water ; the country villages are widely distrib-
uted, each with many square miles of open fields attached ;
and, finally, plums and melons grow there in abundance.
Our campaign of 1792 in Champagne was in my mind as a
warning example ; on that occasion it was not the French
but dysentery which caused our retreat. Armed with my
documents I unfolded to the king the political and military
reasons which opposed the continuation of the war.

We had to avoid wounding Austria too severely ; we had
to avoid leaving behind in her any unnecessary bitterness of

Unification of Germany and Italy

585

feeling or desire for revenge ; we ought rather to reserve the
possibility of becoming friends again with our adversary of
the moment, and in any case to regard the Austrian state
as a piece on the European chessboard and the renewal of
friendly relations as a move open to us. If Austria were
severely injured, she would become the ally of France and
of every other opponent of ours ; she would even sacrifice
her anti-Russian interests for the sake of revenge on Prussia.

On the other hand, I could not see any guarantee for us
in the future of the countries constituting the Austrian mon-
archy, in case the latter were split up by risings of the Hun-
garians and Slavs or made permanently dependent on those
peoples. What would be substituted for that portion of
Europe which the Austrian state had hitherto occupied
from Tyrol to Bukowina ? Fresh formations on this surface
could only be of a permanently revolutionary nature. Ger-
man Austria we could neither w'holly nor partly make use of.
The acquisition of provinces like Austrian Silesia and por-
tions of Bohemia could not strengthen the Prussian state ;
it would not lead to an amalgamation of German Austria
with Prussia, and Vienna could not be governed from Berlin
as a mere dependency.

. . . To all this the king raised no objection, but declared
the actual terms as inadequate, without however definitely
formulating his own demands. Only so much was clear,
that his claims had grown considerably since July 4. He
said that the chief culprit could not be allowed to escape
unpunished, and that, justice once satisfied, we could let the
misled backsliders off more easily ; and he insisted on the
cessions of territory from Austria which I have already
mentioned.

I replied that we were not there to sit in judgment, but
to pursue the German policy. Austria’s conflict and rivalry
with us was no more culpable than ours with her ; our task
was the establishment or foundation of German national
unity under the leadership of the king of Prussia.

Passing on to the German states, the king spoke of vari-
ous acquisitions by cutting down the territories of all our

Bismarck’s
reasons for
treating
Austria
leniently

Prussia has
nothing to
gain from
destroying
the Austrian
power.

Bismarck’s

prudent

moderation.

488. Three
forces pro-
vided for in
the German
federation.

586 Readings m European History

opponents. I repeated that we were not there to administer
retributive justice, but to pursue a policy; that I wished to
avoid in the German federation of the future the sight of
mutilated territories, whose princes and peoples might very
easily (such is human weakness) retain a lively wish to
recover their former possessions by means of foreign aid.

After the close of the short war between Prussia and
Austria, a constitutional convention was summoned to
draw up a plan of federation for Prussia and her neigh-
bors north of the river Main. The constitution of the
North German Federation was the result. The Assem-
bly did its work so well that when, four years later, the
southern states, Bavaria, Baden, and Wiirtemberg, came
into the union after the war with France, the constitu-
tion did not have to be materially altered, and still re-
mains that of the present German empire. Sybel, the
distinguished historian, was a member of the Assembly
in 1867, and well describes in a speech the peculiar dif-
ficulties of devising a union which should meet at once
the demands of Prussia (a European power) and those
of the various German monarchs, who had long regarded
themselves as sovereigns and were fearful of being made
the subjects of the king of Prussia.

Gentlemen, we must now take up what is obviously the
most important and characteristic part of our task. Now
that we have sketched out in general the powers which the
proposed federal government is to enjoy, we must reach a
decision in regard to the organization of the union, — per-
haps the most difficult question that any statesman has
faced during the course of the century, — namely, the for-
mation of a practicable and enduring central authority for
Germany, strong enough to fulfill the various functions
which devolve upon a modern state, and yet so far limited

Unification of Germany and Italy

587

that the German princes and the individual states will not
feel that they have been completely subordinated and medi-
atized. The central government must also be so far depend-
ent upon the parliament that the political sentiments of the
nation at large shall not be violated. Surely no task could
be more difficult than ours. . . .

The plan of a federation now before us, whatever may be
its nature, is in no way a constitutional monarchy, nor is it
a federation according to the traditional theories which have
been developed in the universities. . . . Indeed, those who
have drawn up the plan have unmistakably struck into a
path diametrically opposed to that which has been hitherto
followed in Germany. They have not taken a treatise upon
political theory, I care not how good it may be, and copied
out the features of a constitutional state as they are described
therein ; they have not, after arranging their plan, divided
and distorted the real forces in our country in order to fit
them into it. On the contrary, they have searched out in the
long-standing chaos of German conditions the actually exist-
ing forces ; they have endeavored to give them a legal basis
and .a form adjusted to the strength and importance of each;
they have supplied each with its proper organ, and defined
its scope and activity.

The forces to be considered were, as every one here well
knows, the strong, victorious Prussia, whose traditions of a
glorious past, whose present might, and, above all, whose
future power combine to render her far too big to be fitted
into that academic federation of the Gottingen professors.
\_Laughterl\ In the situation of Europe at the present mo-
ment she necessarily enjoys in some respects a dictatorial
power. Then, on the other hand, there are the other Ger-
man states, who in the war against Prussia certainly won no
laurels. Even those who were her allies were thrown sadly
into the shade by the gigantic increase of Prussia’s power.
Yet, in spite of their relation with Prussia, the various Ger-
man states have exhibited marked vitality and in some in-
stances enjoy a strong support from outside. Moreover, —
and that weighed most heavily, — in spite of the efforts of

Neither a
constitu-
tional mon-
archy feasible
nor a feder-
ation as
commonly
conceived.

588

Readings m Europea^i History

the cultivated class toward unity, the individual states each
retains the very real sympathy of its own people on its own soil.

Thirdly and lastly, there was liberal public opinion, —
in Prussia, in Germany, in Europe, In Prussia, indeed, it
seemed that public opinion had been worsted in the un-
successful opposition to Bismarck’s ministry and had been
forced to give up many of its positions. Yet in spite of this,
by and large, and in the whole range of European relations,
this public opinion has grown stronger and stronger, until
not even the strongest of military monarchies can perma-
nently resist the attacks of this spiritual power, , , ,

It was necessary, then, to reckon with these three forces,
— (i) with the military demands of the great Prussian state,
(2) with the various individual German states, the demands
of which were supported by local sentiment, and (3) with the
strength of public opinion. The draft of the constitution,
as it lies before us, provides for an organ for each of these
forces: to Prussia — to the crown of Prussia — is assigned
the presidency of the federation ; to the smaller states, the
Federal Council {Bundesrath) ; to public opinion, the Im-
perial Diet (Reichstag)}

V, The Franco-Prussian War

Bismarck describes in his memoirs the way in which
he precipitated what he believed to be an unavoidable
war with France, The Prussian king was at Ems, a
well-known watering place, when the French ambassa-
dor, Benedetti, approached him and demanded that the
king should pledge himself never to permit the Hohen-
zollern prince to become a candidate again for the
Spanish throne,^ This William refused to do, and as

1 For an account of the peculiarities of the present German federa-
tion, especially of the Federal Council, which is a species of corporate
vionarch, in whom the sovereignty is vested, not in the emperor, see my
pamphlet, The German Bundesrath, Philadelphia, 1891.

2 See History of Western Europe, p. 662, note (Vol. II, p, 310, note).

Unification of Germany and Italy

589

his patience was > out by the importunities of the
French ministry, he sent word to Benedetti that he
would not see him again. He telegraphed the news of
this to Bismarck, with permission to publish it in the
newspapers if he wished. Upon the receipt of the mes-
sage, Bismarck says :

All considerations, conscious and unconscious, strength-
ened my opinion that war could only be avoided at the cost
of the honor of Prussia and of the national confidence in
her. Under this conviction I made use of the royal author-
ization communicated to me through Abeken to publish the
contents of the telegram ; and in the presence of my two
guests [General Moltke and General Roon] I reduced the
telegram by striking out words, but without adding or alter-
ing anything, to the following form :

“ After the news of the renunciation of the hereditary
prince of Hohenzollern had been officially communicated to
the imperial government of France by the royal government
of Spain, the French ambassador at Ems made the further
demand of his Majesty the king that he should authorize
him to telegraph to Paris that his Majesty the king bound
himself for all future time never again to give his consent
if the Hohenzollerns should renew their candidature. His
Majesty the king thereupon decided not to receive the
French ambassador again, and sent to tell him, through the
aid-de-camp on duty, that his Majesty had nothing further
to communicate to the ambassador.”

The difference in the effect of the abbreviated text of the
Ems telegram as compared with that produced by the origi-
nal was not the result of stronger words, but of the form,
which made this announcement appear decisive, while Abe-
ken’s version would only have been regarded as a fragment
of a negotiation still pending and to be continued at Berlin,
After I had read out the concentrated edition to my two
guests, Moltke remarked : ‘‘Now it has a different ring ; in
its original form it sounded like a parley ; now it is like a

489. How
Bismarck
cut down the
Ems tele-
gram so as
to assure
war with
France.

Ems dis-
patch as pub-
lished by
Bismarck.

590

Readings in Eiiropeafi History

flourish in answer to a challenge,” I went on to explain:
“ If, in execution of his Majesty’s order, I at once communi-
cate this text, which contains no alteration in or addition to
the telegram, not only to the newspapers, but also by tele-
graph to all our embassies, it will be known in Paris before
midnight, and not only on account of its contents, but also
on account of the manner of its distribution, will have the
effect of a red rag upon the Gallic bull.

“ Fight we must if we do not want to act the part of the
vanquished without a battle. Success, however, depends
essentially upon the impression which the origination of the
war makes upon us and others ; it is important that we
should be the ones attacked, and the Gallic insolence and
touchiness will bring about this result if we announce in the
face of Europe, so far as we can without the speaking tube
of the Reichstag, that we fearlessly meet the public threats
of France,”

This explanation brought about in the two generals a
revulsion to a more joyous mood, the liveliness of which
surprised me. They had suddenly recovered their pleasure
in eating and drinking and spoke in a more cheerful vein.
Roon said, “ Our God of old still lives, and will not let us
perish in disgrace.” Moltke so far relinquished his passive
equanimity that, glancing up joyously toward the ceiling and
abandoning his usual punctiliousness of speech, he smote
his hand upon his breast and said, “ If I may but live to
lead our armies in such a war, then the devil may come
directly afterwards and fetch away the old carcass,”

Bismarck, in a letter to his wife written immediately
after the battle of Sedan, describes the capture of Na-
poleon III.

Vendress, September 3, 1870.

Day before yesterday before daybreak I left my quarters
here ; to-day I am returning, and have in the meantime
experienced the great battle of Sedan on the ist; in which
we made towards thirty thousand prisoners and forced back

Unification of Germany and Italy 591

the rest of the French army (which we have been pursuing
all the way from Bar-le-Duc) into the fortress, where they
must surrender themselves along with the emperor. Yester-
day at five o’clock in the morning, after I had been dis-
cussing until one o’clock in the morning with Moltke and the
French generals the terms of the capitulation. General Reille,
whom I know, awoke me to tell me that Napoleon wished
to speak with me.

I rode, without washing and with no breakfast, towards
Sedan, and found the emperor in an open carriage with
three officers of high rank and three others on horseback
on the highroad near Sedan. I dismounted, greeted him as
politely as if we were in the Tuileries, and asked what were
his Majesty’s commands. He wished to see the king. I
told him, as was the truth, that his Majesty had his quarters
three miles from there, at the place where I am now writing.
On Napoleon’s asking whither he should go, I offered him,
since I was unfamiliar with the region, my quarters at Don-
chery, a little place in the neighborhood close to Sedan.
He accepted my invitation, and, accompanied by his -six
Frenchmen, myself, and Karl,^ who had in the meantime
followed me, drove, in the silence of the morning, toward
our forces.

Before we reached the place he began to be apprehensive
lest he might encounter a number of people, and he asked
me whether he could not get out at a lonely laborer’s cot-
tage on the road. I had the place inspected by Karl, who
reported that it was miserable and dirty. “ N'impo?'tefi said
Napoleon ; and I ascended with him a narrow, rickety stair-
way. In a room ten feet square, with a deal table and two
rush-bottomed chairs, we sat an hour, while the others re-
mained below, — a singular contrast to- our last interview in
’67 in the Tuileries.

Our negotiations were difficult, unless I consented to touch
upon matters which could not but be painful to one who had
been so cast down by God’s mighty hand. I had summoned

490. Bis-
marck de-
scribes the
surrender of
Napoleon III
at Sedan.

1 Bismarck’s son.

592

Readings in Eiiropea7i History

officers, through Karl, from the town and had asked Moltke
to come. We then sent out one of the former to reconnoiter,
and discovered, half a mile away, in Fresnois, a little villa
with grounds.

Thither I accompanied the emperor, with an escort from
the king’s cuirassier regiment, which had been called up in
the meantime ; and there we concluded, with the French
general Wimpffen, the capitulation, according to which forty
to sixty thousand French, — I cannot be more accurate at
this time, — with all that they had, became our prisoners.
Day before yesterday and yesterday cost France one hun-
dred thousand men and an emperor. This morning the lat-
ter started with all the members of his court, his horses and
carriages, for Wilhelmshohe, near Cassel.

This has been an event of vast historic importance, — a
victory for which we must thank the Lord in humbleness of
heart. It decides the conflict, although we must still carry
on the war against an emperorless France. . . .

Good-by, my sweetheart. Love to the children.

Your V. B.

The republic was declared in France on September 4,
1870. Jules Favre, the minister of foreign affairs under
the new provisional government, two days later issued
a remarkable circular to the French diplomatic agents
abroad, explaining the situation in France.

491. The
French
minister of
foreign
affairs on
the downfall
of the second
empire (Sep-
tember 6,
1870).

Sir, the events which have just taken place in Paris are
so well explained by the inexorable logic of facts that it is
needless to dwell upon their meaning and bearing. In ced-
ing to an irresistible impulse which had been but too long
restrained, the population of Paris has obeyed a necessity
superior to that of its own safety. It did not wish to perish
with the criminal government which was leading France to her
ruin. It has not pronounced the deposition of Napoleon III
and of his dynasty; it has simply registered it in the name
of right, justice, and public safety; and the sentence was so
completely ratified beforehand by the public conscience that

Unification of Germany and Italy

593

no one, even among the most noisy defenders of the power
that was falling, raised a voice to uphold it. It collapsed
of itself under the weight of its faults and amid the accla-
mations of the entire nation, without a single drop of blood
being shed, without one individual being deprived of his per-
sonal liberty.

. . . Rescued from the shame and the danger of a gov-
ernment which has proved a traitor to all its duties, every
one now comprehends that the first act of national sover-
eignty, reconquered at last, must be one of self-control, —
the seeking for strength by respecting right. Moreover no
time must be lost ; our enemies are at our very gates ; we
have but one thought, — their expulsion from our territory.

But this obligation, which we resolutely accept, we did
not impose upon France, She would not have been in her
present position if she had listened to our voice. We have
energetically defended the policy of peace even at the cost
of our popularity. We still maintain the same opinion. We
are heartbroken at the sight of these human butcheries
consuming the youth of two nations, whom a little good
sense and a great deal of liberty would have preserved from
such frightful catastrophes. We cannot find any adequate
expression of our admiration for our heroic army, sacrificed
through the incapacity of its supreme commander, but
showing itself greater in defeat than in the most brilliant
victory. . . .

I would explain our position in a few words and submit
my statement to the judgment of my country and of Europe.
We loudly condemned the war, and, while proclaiming our
respect for the rights of nations, we asked that Germany
should be left mistress of her own destinies. We wished
that liberty should be at the same time our common bond
and our common protection. We were convinced that these
moral forces would forever insure peace. But we claimed
arms for all citizens and the right to elect our leaders. Had
this been conceded, we should have remained invincible
on our own soil. The government of the emperor, which
had long since divorced its interests from those of the

594

Readings in European History

492. How
the German
empire was
proclaimed
in Versailles
(January 24,
1871).

country, opposed that policy. We revert to it with the hope
that, taught by experience, France will have the wisdom to
put it into practice.

The king of Prussia has declared that he made war not
against France but against the imperial dynasty. The dy-
nasty has fallen. France is free. Does the king of Prussia
wish to continue an unholy struggle, which will be at least
as fatal to him as to us ? Does he wish to give to the nine-
teenth century the cruel spectacle of two nations destroying
one another, and, forgetful of humanity, reason, and culture,
heaping corpse upon corpse, and ruin upon ruin ? He is
free to assume this responsibility in the face of the world
and of history.

If it is a challenge, we accept it. We will cede neither
an inch of our territory nor a stone of our fortresses. A dis-
graceful peace would mean a war of extermination at an
early date. We will treat only for a permanent peace. In
this respect our interest is that of the whole of Europe,
and we have reason to hope that, divested of all dynastic
considerations, the question will thus present itself to the
cabinets of Europe. But even should we stand alone, we
shall not yield. We have a resolute army, well-provisioned
fortresses, a strong cordon of troops, and, above ail, the
hearts of three hundred thousand combatants determined to
hold out to the bitter end.

The official account of the reestablishment of the
German empire appeared in Berlin, January 24, 1871.

In the palace of Louis XIV, in that ancient center of
a hostile power which for centuries has striven to divide
and humiliate Germany, the solemn proclamation of the
German empire was made on January 18, exactly one hun-
dred and seventy years after the assumption of the royal
dignity by the Prussian sovereigns at Konigsberg. Though
the German people, owing to the necessities of the times,
were represented at the ceremony only by the German army,
the eyes of the entire nation were gratefully turned to the

Unification of Germany and Italy

595

place where, surrounded by sovereigns, generals, and sol-
diers, King William announced to the world the assumption
by himself and his heirs of a title for the reestablishment of
which we have been yearning during the sixty long years it
has been in abeyance.

As yet the infatuation of the enemy does not permit us
to throw aside the weapons we have taken up in self-defense ;
and as our unity arose out of the first part of the campaign,
so will our empire be strengthened by the remaining feats
of arms. By the self-sacrificing devotion of all classes of
society, the nation has proved that it still possesses that
warlike prowess which distinguished our ancestors. It has
recovered its ancient position in Europe ; and, neither fear-
ing an adversary nor envying any neighbor, discreet and
temperate in its acts and aims, it accepts the destiny
prophesied for it in the proclamation of its new emperor.
This destiny is to add to its power not by conquest but by
promoting culture, liberty, and civilization. As far as the
German people are concerned, there will be no more wars in
Europe after the determination of the present campaign. . . .

Owing to the unfavorable weather the festive proces-
sion which was to conduct his Majesty from the prefecture
to the palace did not take place. The crown prince, with
Lieutenant-General Blumenthal, his chief of staff, and an
escort of Prussians, Wiirtembergers, Badeners, and Bava-
rians, drove to the palace to receive his royal father at the
eastern portal in front of the Princes’ Stairway. In the
courtyard of the palace a company of the king’s own troops
was drawn up as a guard of honor. . . .

At a quarter past twelve his Majesty entered the hall,
when a choir consisting of men of the Seventh, F orty-
Seventh, and Fifty-Eighth regiments intoned the choral,
“ Let all the world rejoice in the Lord.” . . . When the
choir ceased, the congregation sang one verse of the choral,
“ Praise and honor unto the Lord.” The ordinary military
liturgy was then read by the clergymen and a sermon
preached by the Reverend A. Rogge. Alluding to the well-
known inscription on the ceiling of the hall, “ Le roi governe

Ceremony

Versailles.

596

Readings in European History

par lui-mhneP the preacher observed that the kings of
Prussia had risen to greatness by adopting a different and
more religious motto, namely, “ The kings of the earth reign
under me, saith the Lord.” The Te Deum Laicdamus closed
the service.

The king then walked up to where the colors were dis-
played, and, standing before them, read the document pro-
claiming the reestablishment of the German empire. Count
Bismarck having read the king’s proclamation to the German
nation, the grand duke of Baden stepped forth and exclaimed,
“ Long live his Majesty the emperor ! ” The cheers of the
assembly were taken up by the bands playing the national
anthem.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Refer- Revolution of 1848 in France; Napoleon III: Seignobos, A Politi-

ences. ^al History of Europe since 1814, Chapter VI, pp. 155-186; Phillips,

Modern Europe, i8ip-i8gg, Chapter XI, pp. 254-272 ; Chapter XIV,
pp. 332-338; Fyffe, History of Modern Europe, Chapter XVIII, pp. 699-
706 ; Chapter XIX, pp. 728-737 ; Chapter XX, pp. 809-824 ; Andrews,
The Historical Develop7?ient of Modern Europe, Vol. I, Chapter VIII,
pp. 320-362; Vol. II, Chapter I, pp. 1-41.

Revolt against Metternich’s System: Andrews, Vol. I, Chapters
I X-X, pp. 363-448 ; Phillips, Chapter XI, pp. 232-254 ; Chapters XII-
XIII, pp. 273-331 ; Seignobos, Chapter XIII, pp. 401-423.

Napoleon III and Italian Unity: Andrews, Vol. II, Chapter III,
pp. 91-145; Seignobos, Chapter XI, pp. 336-359; Phillips, Chapter
XV, pp. 361-389.

Bismarck and the North German Federation: Seignobos, Chapter
XV, pp. 456-476; Andrews, Vol. II, Chapters V-VI, pp. 188-260.

Completion of German Unity: Andrews, Vol. II, Chapter VI,
pp. 261-277; Phillips, Chapter XVIII, pp. 449-485; Seignobos,
Chapter XV, pp. 476-484.

The Third French Republic : Seignobos, Chapter VII, pp. 187-204 ;
Andrews, Vol. II, Chapter IX, pp. 343-355.

The Eastern Question; Andrews, Vol. II, Chapter VIII, pp. 297-
342; Seignobos, Chapters XX-XXI, pp. 616-670; Phillips, Chap-
ter XIX, pp. 491-523.

Unification ofi Germany and Italy

597

There are at least two satisfactory political histories of the nineteenth
century, — those of Andrews and of Seignobos, mentioned above. The
English translation of Seignobos is edited by Professor MacVane
and is supplied with extensive and discriminating bibliographies at
the close of each chapter. Somewhat briefer and rather journalistic
is Muller, History of Rece7it Times, giving especial attention to
Germany, 1816-1875. Very recent political developments are treated
by Professor Andrews in his volume on Conte77iporaneous Europe, the
last in the great set, “The History of all Nations,” published by Lea
Brothers. In due time Vols. X-XII of the Cai7ibridge Modern History
will appear, and will, it is to be hoped, give a broad view of the general
progress of the century.

These general accounts may be supplemented by the following :

Anderson, Co7istitutio7is a7id Other Select Docu77ie7its Ilhistrative of
the History of Fra7ice, lySg-igoi, 1904.

Malleson, Life ofPruice Metter7iich.

Munroe Smith, Bis77iarck U7id Ge7-7?ia7i U7iity. Excellent short
account.

Sybel, Foimdhtg of the Ger77ian E77ipire, Vol. I. Gives an excellent
review of German history following 1815.

Bismarck, The Masi a7id the States7/ia7i, 2 vols. Being reflections
and reminiscences written and dictated by himself after his retirement
from office.

Busch, Our Cha7icellor. Interesting impressions of Bismarck by his
secretary.

Thayer, William R., Dawn of Italia 71 I7idepe7tde7tce, 2 vols. Schol-
arly and interesting account up to the revolution of 1848.

Countess Cesaresco, Libe7'atio7i of Italy. This and Stillman, The
Union of Italy, i8ig-i8gg, are exceptionally good accounts by writers
who have lived long in Italy.

Hanotaux, Co7ite77iporary France, Vol. I has appeared, 1903.

CouBERTiN, The Evolutio7i of Fra7ice U7tder the Third Republic.

Traill, Social E7igla7id, Vol. VI.

McCarthy, History of Our Ow7t Thnes, 4 vols.

Holland, E7iropea7t Co7icert hi the Eastern Questio7i.

Lowell, Gover7i77ient a7id Parties in Co7itinental Europe, 2 vols.
Very important.

Bulle, Geschichte der neuesten Zeit, 2d ed., 4 vols., 1886-1887. A very
careful work by one familiar with public questions in Germany. Perhaps
*;he best general account of the political history of the nineteenth century.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

598

Readings in EiLropean History

Debidour, Histoire diplomatique de P Europe, 2 vols., 1814-1891,
and his Histoire des rapports de PEglise et de VEtat en Erance de I’jSg
h 1870, 1898.

Hertslet, Map of Europe by Treaty since 1814, 4 vols.

Stein, L., Geschichte der sozialen Bewegung in Erankreich, 1850.
Best treatment of the social side of the revolution of 1848.

Pierre de la Gorge, Histoire du second empire, 7 vols., 1896-1905.

Bulle, Geschichte des zweiten Kaiserreichs und des Kbnigreichs Italien
(Oncken Series).

Treitschke, Deutsche Geschichte, 5 vols., 1886-1895. Comes down
to 1848. By an able, well-informed writer, but very Prussian and very
subjective.

O'SSCK.'Kts, Zeitalter des Kaiser Wilhehji, 2 vols., 1890-1892.

Blum, Das deutsche Reich zur Zeit Bismarcks, 1893. Comes down to
1890. By an intimate friend of Bismarck’s.

Leger, History of Austro-Hutigary, from the French, 1889, and
Krones, Grundriss der dsterreichischen Geschichte, 1882 ; also his
Geschichte der Neuzeit Osterreichs, 1879.

Allgemeine deutsche Biographic, 40 vols. This admirable biographical
dictionary furnishes exact information in regard to persons of political
importance.

Reuchlin, Geschichte Italiens, 4 vols., 1859-1873. Careful but
unreadable.

Engelhardt, La Turquie et le Tanzimat: histoire des refor7nes
depuis 1826, 2 vols., 1882-1883.

There are several convenient annual publications which sum up the
history year by year and often give the texts of important documents.
The Annual Register has been appearing in England since 1758. For
France, Annuaire histoiHque tcniversel, 18 18-1860, and KAmtie poli-
tique, since 1874 ; Schulthess, Geschichts-Kalender, since i860. The
British aiid Eoreign State Papers (annual since 1829) furnish important
material for the history of Europe since the year 1812.

The voluminous reports of the proceedings in the various parliaments
constitute an unwieldy but indispensable source for the political history.

[Titles of w'orks on various phases of contemporary history and
conditions will be found at the close of the following chapter.]

CHAPTER XLI

EUROPE OF TO-DAY

I. Development of Natural Science

Whewell, in his History of the Inductive Sciences, thus
characterizes the attitude of a great part of the mediaeval
thinkers towards science

We have already stated that real scientific progress re-
quires distinct general ideas applied to many special and
certain facts. In the period of which we now have to
speak, namely, the mediaeval, men’s ideas were obscured ;
their disposition to bring their general views into accord-
ance with facts was enfeebled. They were thus led to
employ themselves unprofitably among indistinct and un-
real notions ; and the evil of these tendencies was further
inflamed by moral peculiarities in the character of those
times, — by an abjectness of thought, on the one hand,
which could not help looking towards some intellectual
superior ; and by an impatience of dissent, on the other.^ . . .

The fact that mere collections of the opinions of physical
philosophers came to hold a prominent place in literature,
already indicated a tendency to an indistinct and wan-
dering apprehension of such opinions. . . . Even Aristotle
himself is much in the habit of enumerating the opinions
of those who have preceded him. To present such state-
ments as an important part of physical philosophy shows
an erroneous and loose apprehension of its nature. . . .
Such diversities of opinion convey no truth ; such a multi-
plicity of statements of what has been said in no degree

493. Con-
trast

between the
mediaeval
and the
modern atti-
tude toward
natural
science.

1 This latter tendency has by no means disappeared (see below, p. 605).
599

6oo

Readings m European History

teaches us what is ; such accumulations of indistinct no-
tions, however vast and varied, do not make up one dis-
tinct idead

. . . But the indistinctness of thought which is so fatal
a feature in the intellect of the stationary period may be
traced more directly in the works even of the best authors
of those times. . . . Thus, if men had any distinct idea
of mechanical action, they could not have accepted for a
moment the fable of the Echeneis, or Remora, a little fish
which was said to be able to stop a large ship by merely
sticking to it. . . . Pliny relates the tale gravely and
moralizes upon it after his manner.^ “ What,” he cries, ‘‘ is
more violent than the sea and the winds ? What greater
work of art than a ship ? Yet one little fish (the Echeneis)
can hold back all these when they all strain the same way.
The winds may blow, the waves may rage ; but this small
creature controls their fury, and stops a vessel, when chains
and anchors would not hold it : and this it does not by
hard labor but by merely adhering to it. Alas for human
vanity, when the turreted ships which man has built, that
he may fight from castle walls at sea as well as on land,
are held captive and motionless by a fish a foot and a half
long ! Such a fish is said to have stopped the admiral’s
ship at the battle of Actium, and compelled Anthony to go
into another. And in our own memory one of these animals
held fast the ship of Caius, the emperor, when he was sail-
ing from Astura to Antium. The stopping of this ship
when all the rest of the fleet went on caused surprise ; but
this did not last long, for some of the men jumped into
the water to look for the fish, and found it sticking to the
rudder. They showed it to Caius, who was indignant that
this animal should interpose its prohibition to his progress,
when impelled by four hundred rowers. It was like a slug,
and had no power after it was taken into the ship.”

1 It must be remembered that Roger Bacon had, in the thirteenth
century, protested against this attitude towards science. See History of
Western Europe, p. 273 (Vol. I, p. 273), and Readings, Vol. I, pp. 460 sq.

2 Pliny’s Natural History, Bk. XXXII, Chapter 5.

Europe of To-day

6oi

A very little advance in the power of thinking clearly
on the force which it exerted in pulling, would have enabled
the Romans to see that the ship and its rowers must pull
the adhering fish by the hold of the oars upon the water;
and that, except the fish had a hold equally strong on some
external body, it could not resist this forced

While Roger Bacon had, in the thirteenth century,
forecast the methods of modern science, it remained for
Francis Bacon, some three centuries later, clearly to
enunciate its principles in his famous Novum Organunif
which he dedicated to James I. In it he harshly criti-
cises the mediaeval attitude toward natural science.

The discoveries which have hitherto been made in the
sciences are such as lie close to vulgar notions, scarcely be-
neath the surface. In order to penetrate into the inner and
further recesses of nature, it is necessary that both notions

1 Lactantius, a Christian writer of Constantine’s time, like Pliny
much read in the Middle Ages, well illustrates the confusion of thought
of which Whewell speaks. He is discussing the idea advanced by the
philosophers that there may be men living on the opposite side of the
globe. “ How can there be any one so absurd as to think that men can
have their feet higher than their heads ; or that in those parts of the
earth instead of resting on the ground things hang down ; crops and
trees grow downward ; rain, snow, and hail fall upward on to the earth
Who indeed can wonder at the hanging gardens which are reckoned as
one of the seven wonders when the philosophers would have us believe
in hanging fields and cities, seas and mountains.^ . . .

“ If you ask those who maintain these monstrous notions why every-
thing does not fall off into the heavens on that side, they reply that it
is of the nature of things that all objects having weight are borne toward
the center, and that everything is connected with the center, like the
spokes of a wheel ; while light things, like clouds, smoke, and fire, are
borne away from the center and seek the heavens. I scarce know what
to say of such fellows, who when once they have wandered from truth
persevere in their foolishness and defend their absurdities by new ab-
surdities. Sometimes I imagine that their philosophizing is all a joke,
or that they know the truth well enough and only defend these lies in
a perverse attempt to exhibit and exercise their wit.” — Divinae Institu-
tiofies, Lib. iii, sect. 24, Corp. Scrip. Eccl. Lat., XIX, pp. 254 sq.

494. Francis
Bacon pro-
claims the
principles
of modern
scientific
progress.

602

Readings hi Emvpean History

Religious
opposition to
science.

Influence of
the scholastic
philosophers.

and axioms be derived from things by a more sure and
guarded way, and that a method of intellectual operation
be introduced altogether better and more certain. . . .

There is no soundness in our notions, whether logical or
physical. Substance, quality, action, passion, essence itself
are not sound notions ; much less are heavy, light, dense,
rare, moist, dry, generation, corruption, attraction, repulsion,
element, matter, form, and the like ; but all are fantastical
and ill-defined. . . .

There are and can be only two ways of searching into
and discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and
particulars to the most general axioms, and from these
principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and im-
movable, proceeds to judgment and the discovery of middle
axioms. And this way is now in fashion. The other derives
axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a grad-
ual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most
general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but as yet
untried. . . .

It is not to be forgotten that in every age natural phi-
losophy has had a troublesome adversary and hard to deal
with, — namely, superstition and the blind and immoderate
zeal of religion. For we see among the Greeks that those
who first proposed to man’s uninitiated ears the natural
causes for thunder and for storms were thereupon found
guilty of impiety. Nor was much more forbearance shown
by some of the ancient fathers of the Christian Church to
those who, on most convincing grounds (such as no one in
his senses would now think of contradicting), maintained
that the earth was round and, of consequence, asserted the
existence of the antipodes.^

Moreover, as things now are, to discourse of nature is
made harder and more perilous by the summaries and
systems of the schoolmen ; who, having reduced theology
into regular order as well as they were able, and fash-
ioned it into the shape of an art, ended in incorporating the

1 See extract from Lactantius given above, p. 6oi, note.

Europe of To-day 603

contentious and thorny philosophy of Aristotle, more than
was fit, with the body of religion. ...

Lastly, some are weakly afraid lest a deeper search into
nature should transgress the permitted limits of sober-
mindedness ; wrongfully wresting and transferring what is
said in Holy Writ against those who pry into sacred mys-
teries to the hidden things of nature, which are barred by
no prohibition. Others, with more subtlety, surmise and
reflect that if secondary causes are unknown everything
can be more readily referred to the divine hand and rod, —
a point in which they think religion greatly concerned ;
which is, in fact, nothing else but to seek to gratify God
with a lie. Others fear from past example that movements
and changes in philosophy will end in assaults on religion ;
and others again appear apprehensive that in the investiga-
tion of nature something may be found to subvert, or at
least shake, the authority of religion, especially with the
unlearned.

But these two last fears seem to me to savor utterly of
carnal wisdom ; as if men in the recesses and secret thoughts
of their hearts doubted and distrusted the strength of reli-
gion, and the empire of faith over the senses, and therefore
feared that the investigation of truth in nature might be
dangerous to them. But if the matter be truly considered,
natural philosophy is, after the word of God, at once the
surest medicine against superstition and the most approved
nourishment for faith ; and therefore she is rightly given
to religion as her most faithful handmaid, since the one
displays the will of God, the other his power. . . .

. . . Again, in the customs and institutions of schools,
academies, colleges, and similar bodies destined for the
abode of learned men and the cultivation of learning,
everything is found adverse to the progress of science.
For the lectures and exercises there are so ordered that to
think or speculate on anything out of the common way
can hardly occur to any man. And if one or two have
the boldness to use any liberty of judgment, they must
undertake the task all by themselves ; they can have no

No conflict
between
science and
religion.

Universities
opposed to
scientific
advance

6o4

Readings in Eiiropcan History

Great hopes of

experimental

science.

advantage from the company of others. And if they can
endure this also, they will find their industry and large-
ness of mind no slight hindrance to their fortune. For the
studies of men in these places are confined and, as it were,
imprisoned in the writings of certain authors, from whom,
if any man dissent, he is straightway arraigned as a tur-
bulent person and an innovator. ... In matters of state,
change even for the better is distrusted, because it unsettles
what is established ; these things resting on authority, con-
sent, fame, and opinion, not on demonstration ; but arts
and sciences should be like mines where the noise of new
works and further advances is heard on every side. . . .
No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose
as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories
and common notions and to apply the understanding, thus
made fair and even, to a fresh examination of particulars.
Thus it happens that human knowledge, as we have it, is
a mere medley and ill-digested mass, made up of much
credulity and much accident, and also of the childish
notions which we at first imbibed.

Now if any one of ripe age, unimpaired senses, and well-
purged mind apply himself anew to experience and partic-
ulars, better hopes may be entertained of that man. In
which point I promised to myself a like fortune to that of
Alexander the Great, [who, according to Titus Livius,]
“had done no more than take courage to despise vain
apprehensions.” And a like judgment I suppose may be
passed on myself in future ages ; that I did no great things,
but simply made less account of things that were counted
great. In the meanwhile, as I have already said, there is
no hope except in a new birth of science ; that is, in rais-
ing it regularly up from experience and building it afresh ;
which no one, I think, will say has yet been done or
thought of.

The natural suspicion which is always aroused by
new scientific discoveries and theories apparently in
conflict with accepted ideas is well indicated by the

EiLvope of To-day 605

reception, a generation or so ago, of Darwin’s remark-
able investigations.

Darwin’s Origin of Species had come into the theological
world like a plow into an ant-hill. Everywhere those thus
rudely awakened from their old comfort and repose had
swarmed forth angry and confused. Reviews, sermons,
books light and heavy, came flying at the new thinker from
all sides. . . .

One distinguished clerical reviewer, in spite of Darwin’s
thirty years of quiet labor, and in spite of the powerful
summing up of his book, prefaced a diatribe by saying
that Darwin “ might have been more modest had he given
some slight reason for dissenting from the views gener-
ally entertained.” Another distinguished clergyman, vice
president of a Protestant institute to combat “ dangerous ”
science, declared Darwinism “ an attempt to dethrone
God.” Another critic spoke of persons accepting the Dar-
winian views as “ under the frenzied inspiration of the
inhaler of mephitic gas,” and of Darwin’s argument as “a
jungle of fanciful assumption.” Another spoke of Darwin’s
views as suggesting that “God is dead,” and declared that
Darwin’s work “ does open violence to everything which
the Creator himself has told' us in the Scriptures of the
methods and results of his work.” . . .

In France the attack was even more violent. [A French
prelate wrote :] “These infamous doctrines have for their
only support the most abject passions. Their father is pride,
their mother impurity, their offspring revolutions ; they come
from hell and return thither, taking with them the gross
creatures who blush not to proclaim and accept them.” . . .

[Pope Pius IX, acknowledging the gift of a supposed
refutation of Darwin’s theory of evolution, said:] “A sys-
tem which is repugnant at once to history, to the traditions
of all peoples, to exact science, to observed facts, and even
to reason herself, would seem to need no refutation, did
not alienation from God and the leaning toward material-
ism due to depravity eagerly seek a support in all this

495. How
Darwin’s
works were
received by
conservative
persons.
(From
Andrew D.
White’s
Warfare of
Science and
Theology.)

6o6

Readings in. European History

496. The
scientific
advance
in the
eighteenth
century.
(Adapted
from Taine.)

Inorganic

sciences.

tissue of fables. . . . And, in fact, pride, after rejecting the
Creator of all things and proclaiming man independent,
wishing him to be his own king, his own priest, and his
own God, — pride goes so far as to degrade man himself to
the level of the unreasoning brutes, perhaps even of life-
less matter, thus unconsciously confirming the divine decla-
ration, ‘ When pride cometh, then cometh shame.’ But the
corruption of this age, the machinations of the perverse,
the danger of the simple, demand that such fancies, alto-
gether absurd though they are, should — since they borrow
the mask of science — be refuted by true science.”

The truly astonishing advances in natural science
which antedate the French Revolution, and upon which
the discoveries of the nineteenth century were based,
are thus summed up by a brilliant F rench writer.

In pure mathematics we have infinitesimal calculus,
discovered simultaneously by Leibnitz and Newton ; in
astronomy, the series of calculations and observations
which, from Newton to Laplace, transforms science into a
problem of mechanics, explains and predicts the move-
ments of the planets and of their satellites, indicates the
origin and formation of our solar system, and, extending
beyond this through the discoveries of Herschel, affords
an insight into the distribution of the stellar archipelagoes
and of the grand outlines of celestial architecture.

In physics we have the decomposition of light and the
principles of optics discovered by Newton, the velocity
of sound, the form of its undulations, the primary laws of
the radiation of heat, the experiments by which Du Fay,
Franklin, and especially Coulomb explain, manipulate, and
for the first time utilize, electricity. In chemistry the chief
foundations of the science were laid : isolation of oxygen,
nitrogen, and hydrogen, the composition of water, the
theory of combustion, chemical nomenclature, quantitative
analysis, the indestructibility of matter, — in short, the dis-
coveries of Scheele, Priestley, Cavendish, Lavoisier.

Europe of To-day 607

In geology we have the verification and results of Newton’s
theory, the exact form of the earth, the laws of the tides,
the primitive fluidity of the planet, the aqueous and igne-
ous origin of rocks, the structure of the beds of fossils,
the repeated and prolonged submersion of continents, the
slow growth of animal* and vegetable deposits, the vast
antiquity of life, the gradual transformation of the earth’s
surface, and, finally, the grand picture in which Buffon
describes approximately the entire history of our globe
from the time it formed a mass of glowing lava down to
the time when our own species, after so many lost or sur-
viving ones, was able to inhabit it.

Upon this science of inorganic matter we see arising at
the same time the science of organic matter. Linnjeus in-
vents botanical nomenclature and the first satisfactory clas-
sifications of plants. Digestion is explained by Reaumur
and Spallanzani, respiration by Lavoisier. Scientists pene-
trate to the lowest stages of animal life. Lyonnet devotes
twenty years to portraying a species of caterpillar. Need-
ham reveals his infusoria. Buffon, and above all Lamarck,
in their great but incomplete sketches, outline with pene-
trating divination the leading features of modern physi-
ology and zoology. Organic molecules everywhere diffused,
which multiply and combine with one another through
blind and spontaneous development, without either foreign
direction or any preconceived end, solely through the
effects of their structure and surroundings, unite together
and form those masterly organisms which we call plants
and animals. In the beginning we have the simplest forms,
followed by slowly developing, complex, and perfected
organisms, — all indicated, by conjecture and approxima-
tion, the cellular theory of later physiologists and the con-
clusions of Darwin. In the picture of nature which the
human mind now portrays, the science of the eighteenth
century has drawn the general outline, and indicated the
perspective and the general masses so correctly that at the
present day all its main features remain intact. Except a
few partial changes, there is nothing to efface.

Organic

sciences.

6o8

Readings in European History

497. Effi-
ciency of
modern
industrial
methods.
(From C. A.
Beard’s
Ihe Industrial
Revolution.)

II. Applied Science

While Bacon, Newton, and Laplace were engaged,
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in pro-
found scientific research, practicgil inventors, like New-
comen, Arkwright, Crompton, Watt, and Cartwright,
were availing themselves, often unconsciously, of the
great principles of natural law. The result was a series
of mechanical devices which were later greatly increased
and perfected through the aid of science, and which have
served to revolutionize industry and commerce and fun-
damentally to alter social and political conditions. The
central economic facts of this revolution have been the
increase in man’s productive powers and the vast im-
provement in the means of transportation.

Human progress depends on the ability of mankind to
do more work and to accomplish greater tasks ; to supply
the necessaries of life with less expenditure of time and
strength and thus to secure leisure for thought, invention,
and artistic development of every kind.

To show the expansion of trade following the new inven-
tions it is necessary to give a few statistics. When machin-
ery was introduced into the textile industries the output of
manufactured goods increased by leaps and bounds. In
1764 the cotton imported into England amounted to about

4.000. 000 pounds; in 1841 it had increased to nearly

500.000. 000 pounds. In 1792 the amount of cotton imported
into Lancashire alone from the United States was 138,000
pounds ; in 1800 it was 18,000,000 pounds. The wool im-
ported into England in 1766 was only about 2,000,000
pounds ; in 1830 the amount had risen to more than

32.000. 000 pounds. In 1788 the iron output was 61,000
tons ; in 1839 was over 1,250,000 tons. One hundred years
after Crompton invented his spinning mule there were in
Lancashire 2655 cotton mills running a total of nearly

Europe of To-day

609

38,000,000 spindles and 463,000 power looms; in the twenty-
two years from 1793 to 1815 English exports, according
to official valuation, rose from ^17,000,000 annually to
;^58, 000,000, in spite of the depression caused by the
Napoleonic wars.

These figures give an inkling of the industrial trans-
formation which followed the great inventions. Now let us
turn to the real increase in the productive capacity of the
individual. In other words, let us see whether productive
capacity has grown more rapidly than the population.
Unfortunately, careful compilations of statistics are only
of recent date, but we know that Hargreaves’ jenny worked
only eight spindles. The number was gradually increased
to one hundred and twenty, and by the beginning of the
nineteenth century to two hundred. The jenny now has
more than a thousand spindles, each revolving at the rate
of ten thousand revolutions per minute. A man and two
boys can tend two thousand spindles.

The hand-loom weaver used to make from sixty to eighty
throws of the shuttle per minute. Fifty years ago the best
power loom made only one hundred throws ; to-day the
highest-grade loom runs at the rate of about four hundred
per minute, and along with the increase of the productive
capacity of the machine there is a decrease in the amount
of human labor required in the operations. Formerly one
weaver tended but one loom; now one worker tends from
two to ten looms according to the grade of goods. So
great has been the increase in the efficiency of textile
machinery that a single operative can supply two hundred
and fifty persons with the necessary cotton garments, or
three hundred persons with woolen clothing.

In every branch of industry attention has been devoted
to increasing productive power, until almost marvelous
results have been attained. In the continuation of the con-
struction of the Cologne cathedral in 1870, two men with
a steam crane lifted as much stone in a day as three
hundred and sixty men could have done in the same time
in the Middle Ages The old craftsman produced at best

498. Im-
provements
in methods
of transpor-
tation.

(From Wells’

Economic

Changes.)

610 Readings in European History

a couple of pairs of shoes per day; the modern worker
with machinery can turn out five hundred pairs a day. In
one year six English workmen can produce enough bread
to supply a thousand people for the same length of time.
This includes all the labor from the breaking up of the soil
to the delivery of the bread to the consumer.

The extent to which mechanical power can be substi-
tuted for hand labor depends upon the ability of man to
contrive machinery. Here is the material key to man’s
spiritual progress. The plowing of a furrow, the sowing of
the seed, the reaping of the grain, its transportation from
one market to another, the weaving of a fabric, and the
making of a coat, all represent in the final analysis the appli-
cation of so much power to matter. The past achievements
of inventors have shown us that there are no limits to the
ways in which the exhaustless forces of nature can be applied
to do man’s work. If we look back, we see man struggling
to maintain life by sheer strength of muscle ; but if we look
forward along the centuries of the future, we see the strug-
gle for existence taking only a small portion of man’s energy,
leaving all the remainder of his powers of heart and brain
free for the enlargement and enriching of life.

The result of the construction and use of compound
engines in economizing coal has been illustrated by Sir
Lyon Playfair, by the statement that “ a small cake of coal
which would pass through a ring the size of a shilling, when
burned in the compound engine of a modern steamboat,
would drive a ton of food and its proportion of the ship two
miles on its way from a foreign port.” Another calculator,
says the London Engineer., “ has computed that half a sheet
of note paper will develop sufficient power, when burned in
connection with a triple expansion engine, to carry a ton
a mile in an Atlantic steamer.” How, under such circum-
stances, the charge for sea freights on articles of compara-
tively high value has been reduced, is shown by the fact
that the ocean transport of fresh meat from New York to
Liverpool does not exceed one cent per pound. . . .

Europe of To-day 6 1 1

Great, however, as has been the revolution in respect to
economy and efficiency in the carrying trade upon the ocean,
the revolution in the carrying trade on land during the
same period has been even greater and more remarkable.
Taking the American railroads in general as representative
of the railroad system of the world, the average charge for
moving one ton of freight per mile has been reduced from
about two and one-half cents in 1869 to about a cent in
1887. To grasp fully the meaning and significance of these
figures, their method of presentation may be varied by say-
ing that two thousand pounds of coaj, iron, wheat, cotton,
or other commodities can now be carried on the best-
managed railways for a distance of one mile for a sum so
small that, outside of China, it would be* difficult to find a
coin of equivalent value to give to a boy as a reward for
carrying an ounce package across the street, even if a man
or boy could be found in Europe or the United States will-
ing either to give or accept so small a compensation for
such a service.

The history of this industrial movement would embrace,
directly or indirectly, an account of all that chiefly distin-
guished the nineteenth century from the eighteenth, the old
regime from the new. It would include an account of the
origin and rise of the factory system of industry, replacing
the home work or the small and scattered workshops of
the old time by the aggregation of men and machinery at
industrial centers. It would be much concerned with the
discovery and perfection of the steam engine, the mighty
prime mover in these changes, and after that with the dis-
covery and development of its chief modes of application
to the spindle, the weaving frame, the forge, the printing
press, the mill, and innumerable other instruments of pro-
duction ; to the railway, the steamship, and other means
of transportation and communication.

But only in its origin is the revolution exclusively indus-
trial, and in the next stage are seen its immediate effects
upon human life, of which perhaps the most important

Transporta-
tion on land.

499. Eco-
nomic effects
of the revo-
lution in the
means of
communi-
cation.
(From Ihe
United States
of America,
edited by
Professor
Shaler.)

Aggregation
of industries
in cities.

6i2

Readings in European History

Economic
revolution
caused by im-
proved trans-
portation.

spring from the aggregation of industries, and consequently
of men, in cities, accompanied by a relative diminution
of the number of tillers of the soil, and the separation of
producers into two distinct classes, — the capitalists, or
organizing and directing class, and the manual laborers.
A mind subtle enough might trace a third and more remote
series of effects to the same causes. The thought of our
time, whether taking the form of literature, science, the fine
arts, or political discussion, is evidently molded in great
measure by the spectacle of the industrial revolution and
of the phenomena induced by it.

None of these changes are more characteristic or more
indispensable to the state of society that we now see around
us than those in- the methods of moving men and things
from one place to another, and of communication between
men in places distant from one another. The change in
industrial organization involves, above all, a greater depend-
ence of each class of men upon other classes, and there-
fore the necessity for more frequent interchange of goods.
The manufacturing class, formerly to a great degree scat-
tered over the country as small handicraftsmen, have now
separated entirely from the agricultural class and gathered
in factories in the great towns. Therefore the products of
the loom, the mill, and the forge, which formerly, if not
actually produced upon the farmer’s premises, were to be
had near at hand, must now be brought from the more dis-
tant towns, and the farm products exchanged for them
must traverse the same distance.

One need only visit Mount Vernon to see an illustration
of this change. George Washington lived upon his estate,
surrounded by small handicraftsmen, and, as regards the
commoner needs of daily life, almost entirely independent
of transportation. Not only did he raise the foodstuffs for
his own consumption and that of his numerous dependents,
but blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors, and carpenters were
found among the slaves upon his plantation, and cloth for
the coarser sort of garments was spun and woven in his
household. Nowadays country gentlemen usually live near

Europe of To-day 613

a railroad station, and have their supplies sent out every
week, or oftener, from the nearest large town, perhaps a hun-
dred miles away.

Still more important to the study of transportation than
this withdrawal of the manufacturing classes into towns is
the specialization of manufactures by districts, — what has
been called the territorial division of labor. The principle
that one can accomplish most by concentrating his energies
on the thing that he is best fitted to do, has in our time
been applied to places as well as to persons. Massachusetts
has districts whose people are almost wholly occupied with
shoemaking, and others where they are equally engrossed
in cotton spinning. Pittsburg and the surrounding country
is, roughly speaking, a vast iron furnace, Dakota a wheat
field, and so on.

Applied science is by no means confined to the in-
vention of machinery and the facilitating of travel and
intercommunication. Science has revolutionized our ideas
of animal and plant life and of the treatment of maladies.
By means of the most delicately adjusted microscopes
it has become possible to discover and study the minute
plants known as bacteria, some of which are not over
a hundred and fifty thousandth of an inch in diameter.

The study of the life histories of these diminutive plants
excites the wonder of those who make observations upon
them. It is truly marvelous to know that these bacteria
can accomplish, in their short lives of possibly a few hours
or days, feats which would baffie the cleverest of chem-
ists if given years of a lifetime to work upon. They give to
the farmer the good quality of his crops, to the dairyman
superior butter and cheese ; they assist in large measure in
freeing our rivers and lakes from harmful pollutions. Here
it should be strongly emphasized that those bacteria which
cause disease are only a few species, all others contributing
to our welfare in countless ways.

500. The
beneficent
bacteria.
(From

Dr. William
Osier.)

501. Modern
surgery.
(From
Dr.W. W.
Keen.)

614 Readings in European History

Quite as astonishing is the discovery that within the
root knobs of peas and beans live bacteria which, by split-
ting up mineral salts containing nitrogen and by absorbing
nitrogen from the air, give it over to the plant, so that it is
enabled to grow luxuriantly, whereas without their presence
the tiller of the soil might fertilize the ground in vain. It
is quite possible that not alone peas and beans but all
grasses and plants and trees depend upon the presence of
such germs for their very existence, which in turn supply
man and animals with their means of existence. Hence we
see that these nitrifying bacteria, as they are called, if
swept out of existence, would be the cause of cessation of
all life upon the globe.

The astonishing effects of scientific discovery in pro-
moting the highly practical art of surgery are well de-
scribed by Dr. Keen in the following passage.

Great theologians, such as a Calvin or a Jonathan Edwards,
were they recalled to life, could discourse as learnedly as
ever of predestination and free will ; great forensic orators,
such as a Burke or a Webster, could convince us by the
same arguments and arouse us by the same invectives that
made our fathers willing captives to their silver tongues.
But to-day, so rapid has been our surgical progress that
a Velpeau, a Sir William Ferguson, or a Pancoast, all of
whom have died within the last thirty years, could not teach
modern surgical principles nor perform a modern surgical
operation. Even our everyday surgical vocabulary — staphy-
lococcus, streptococcus, infection, immunity, antisepsis and
asepsis, toxin and antitoxin — would be unintelligible jar-
gon to him; and our modern operations on the brain,
the chest, the abdomen, and the pelvis would make him
wonder whether we had all lost our senses, until, seeing the
almost uniform and almost painless recoveries, he would
thank God for the magnificent progress of the last half
century, which had vouchsafed such magical — nay, almost
divine — power to the modern surgeon.

Europe of To-day

<5i5

III. Political and Social Democracy

The chief political question of the nineteenth century
in all the states of western Europe has been the same,
— namely, whether the king should continue to rule
in the more or less absolute manner in which he had
controlled the government in the previous century, or
whether the people should be regarded as the sover-
eign and rule through their deputies. Everywhere, conse-
quently, though with certain local differences, we find
the following four great parties representing four differ-
ent views of this fundamental question.

1. The absolutist conservative party, formed by the high
officials and landed aristocracy, desired to maintain ab-
solute government, the authority of the Church, and the
censorship of the press; it controlled all the central, east-
ern, and southern states of Europe. It no longer existed
in England, for the former absolutist party, the Jacobites,
had not survived the century of political liberty.

2. The liberal conservative, or constitutional party, some-
times called the Tory, or right center, composed of the
upper middle class and the liberal officeholders, demanded
that the assembly should control the administration of the
government, particularly in financial matters. Its ideal was
personal government by the sovereign, with a parliament of
two houses, one aristocratic, the other elective. It believed
that the electoral body should be limited by a considerable
property qualification, and that the parliament should vote
the annual budget and leave the prince free in the choice
of his ministers and in the direction of general policy.
There should be no censorship of the press, but liberty
should be restricted to the wealthy classes; the nation’s
rights should be guaranteed by a constitution. This party
was in power in the states which had constitutions; in the
absolute monarchies it demanded a constitution, a repre-
sentative assembly, and the abolition of censorship.

502. The

chief party

issues in

western

Europe

during the

nineteenth

century.

(From

Seignobos.)

The constitu-
tional party,
or right
center.

6i6

Readings in Eitropean History

The parlia-
mentary
party, or left
center.

The radical
democratic
party.

3. The parliamentary liberal party, sometimes called the
Whig, or left center, recruited from the middle class, de-
manded not only control by the elective assembly but its
supremacy over the sovereign, his ministers, and the aristo-
cratic chamber. Its ideal was the parliamentary system, a
ministry chosen from the party in majority in the lower
house, governing in the prince’s name, but according to
the will of the elected representatives of the nation. It de-
manded a constitution which recognized the superior rights
or sovereignty of the people, political liberties (such as liberty
of the press, holding public meetings, and forming associa-
tions), and absolute religious liberty. ... It would admit
only property owners to vote, but tended to lower the qual-
ifications for the franchise in order to include in the voting
body the lower middle class.

4. The democratic, or radical party, formed by students,
workingmen, writers, and lawyers, demanded, according to
the motto of the French Revolution, the sovereignty and
political equality of the people. It added to the demands of
the parliamentary party universal suffrage, remuneration
of representatives, abolition of all political privileges of the
wealthy classes, and separation of church and state. Its
ideal was a purely representative, democratic, and prefera-
bly republican government like that of the French Conven-
tion, or even a direct government by the people, in which
they should themselves make the constitution. In 1815
this party, so far from being in power in any country, had
not even the right to formulate its programme publicly,
except in England, Sweden, and Norway.

The two extreme parties, absolutist and democratic, held
diametrically opposite conceptions of government and so-
ciety. The absolutists wanted a society based on heredi-
tary inequality. . . . They also demanded an established
religion. The democrats admitted neither political, heredi-
tary, nor ecclesiastical authority.

A country might, however, pass from one of these ex-
tremes to the other gradually, for the four parties formed
a continuous gradation. The absolutist system became

Europe of To-day 617

constitutional when the prince consented to grant a consti-
tution, as in the south German states in 1816 to 1819. The
constitutional system was insensibly transformed into the
parliamentary system as the sovereign took more account
of the wishes of the elective chamber, as in England after
1830. The parliamentary system became democratic with
the extension of the suffrage and the assembly’s acquisition
of supremacy over all the other powers, as in Switzerland.

With the revolution of 1848 in France a new party,
working for economic as well as political changes, made
its appearance, as we have seen.^ This movement was
the outgrowth of the great industrial changes of the
preceding half century. The efforts of its adherents were
commonly directed towards some socialistic reorganiza-
tion of society which should secure to the workingman
a more generous share of the products of his labor than
he could receive under the capitalistic system which had
grown up. Of the many programmes of reform which
have been drawn up by the labor leaders, the follow-
ing, formulated at a great labor congress at Gotha in
1875, will serve as a statement of their chief economic
doctrines.

I. Labor is the source of all wealth, and of all civiliza-
tion; and since it is only through society that generally
productive labor is possible, the whole product of labor,
where there is a general obligation to work, belongs to
society, — that is, to all its members, by equal right, to
each according to his reasonable needs.

In the society of to-day the means of production are a
monopoly of the capitalistic class; the dependence of the
working classes which results from this is the cause of
misery and of servitude in all its forms.

503. The
socialist
programme
issued at
Gotha (1875)

1 See above, p. 560.

6i8

Readmgs in European History

International
nature of the
socialist
movement.

Immediate
reforms
demanded by
the socialists.

The emancipation of labor requires the conversion of the
means of production into the common property of society
and the social regulation of all labor and its application
for the general good, together with the just distribution of
the product of labor.

The emancipation of labor must be the work of the
laboring class itself, opposed to which all other classes are
reactionary groups.

2. Proceeding from these principles, the socialist labor
party of Germany endeavors by every lawful means to bring
about a free state and a socialistic society, to effect the de-
struction of the iron law of wages by doing away with the
system of wage labor, to abolish exploitation of every kind,
and to extinguish all social and political inequality.

The socialist labor party of Germany, although for the
time being confining its activity within national bounds,
is fully conscious of the international character of the labor
movement, and is resolved to meet all the obligations which
this lays upon the laborer, in order to bring the brother-
hood of all mankind to a full realization.

The socialist labor party of Germany, in order to prepare
the way for the solution of the social question, demands the
establishment of socialistic productive associations with
the support of the state and under the democratic control
of the working people. These productive associations, for
both industry and agriculture, are to be created to such
an extent that the socialistic organization of all labor may
result therefrom.

[In addition to the demand for universal suffrage for all
above twenty years of age, secret ballot, freedom of the
press, free and compulsory education, etc.,] the socialist
labor party of Germany demands the following reforms in
the present social organization: (i) the greatest possible
extension of political rights and freedom in the sense of
the above-mentioned demands; (2) a single progressive in-
come tax, both state and local, instead of all -the existing
taxes, especially the indirect ones, which weigh heavily
upon the people ; (3) unlimited right of association ; (4) a

Europe of To-day

619

normal working day corresponding with the needs of society,
and the prohibition of work on Sunday; (5)- prohibition of
child labor and all forms of labor by women which are
dangerous to health or morality; (6) laws for the protec-
tion of the life and health of workmen, sanitary control of
workmen’s houses, inspection of mines, factories, work-
shops, and domestic industries by officials chosen by the
workmen themselves, and an effective system of enforce-
ment of the same; (7) regulation of prison labor.

A more vigorous denunciation of the present social
organization is to be found in the Erfurt programme of
October, 1891.

The economic development of industrial society tends
inevitably to the ruin of small industries, which are based
upon the workman’s private ownership of the means of
production. It separates him from these means of produc-
tion and converts him into a destitute member of the pro-
letariat, whilst a comparatively small number of capitalists
and great landowners obtain a monopoly of the means of
production.

Hand in hand with this growing monopoly goes the
destruction of these scattered small industries by industries
of colossal growth, the development of the tool into the
machine, and a gigantic increase in the productiveness of
human labor. But all the advantages of this revolution are
monopolized by the capitalist and great landowners. To
the proletariat and to the rapidly sinking middle classes,
the small tradesmen of the towns and the peasants, it brings
an increasing uncertainty of existence, increasing misery,
oppression, servitude, degradation, and exploitation.

Ever greater grows the mass of the proletariat, ever
vaster the army of the unemployed, ever sharper the con-
trast between oppressors and oppressed, ever fiercer that
war of classes between bourgeoisie and proletariat which
divides modern society into two hostile camps and is the
common characteristic of every industrial country.

504. Ex-
tract from
the Erfurt
programme
of the
socialists
(October,
1891).

Criticism of
the existing
capitalistic
organization
of society.

620

Readings in Europea?! Histo?y

505. Present
extent of
European
colonies.
(From

J. A. Hobson.)

Small extent
of German
colonies.

French

colonies.

IV. Imperialism

An English writer thus briefly indicates the present
extent of the colonies of the several European powers.

Since 1884 some three and three-quarter millions of
square miles have been added to the British empire. Nor
does Great Britain stand alone in this enterprise. The lead-
ing characteristic of modern imperialism, the competition
of rival empires, is the product of this same period. The
close of the Franco-German war marks the beginning of
a new colonial policy in France and Germany, destined to
take effect in the next decade.

It was not unnatural that the newly founded German
empire, surrounded by powerful enemies and doubtful allies,
and perceiving its more adventurous youth drawn into the
United States and other foreign lands, should form the
idea of a colonial empire. During the seventies a vigorous
literature sprang up in advocacy of the policy, which took
shape a little later in the powerful hands of Bismarck. The
earliest instance of official aid for the promotion of German
commerce abroad occurred in 1880. But the definite ad-
vance of Germany upon its imperialistic career began in
1884 with a policy of African protectorates and annexations
of oceanic islands. During the next fifteen years she
brought under her colonial sway about a million square
miles, with an estimated population of fourteen millions.
Almost the whole of this territory is tropical, and the white
population forms a total of a few thousands.

Similarly in France a great revival of the old colonial
spirit took place in the early eighties. The extension of
empire in the Senegal and Sahara in 1880 was followed
next year by the annexation of Tunis, and France was soon
actively engaged in the scramble for Africa in 1884, while
at the same time she was fastening her rule upon Tonquin
and Laos in Asia. Her acquisitions since 1880 (exclusive
of the extension of New Caledonia and its dependencies)
amount to an area of over three and one-half million square

Europe of To-day

621

miles, with a native population of some thirty-seven mil-
lion; almost the whole territory is tropical or subtropi-
cal, inhabited by lower races, and incapable of colonization.

Italian aspirations took similar shape from 1880 onwards,
though the disastrous experience of the Abyssinian expedi-
tion has given a check to Italian imperialism. Her posses-
sions in East Africa are confined to the northern colony of
Eritrea and the protectorate of Somaliland.

Of the other European states two only, Portugal and
Belgium, enter directly into the competition of the new
imperialism. Spain may be said to have definitely retired
from imperial competition. The large and important pos-
sessions of Holland in the East and West Indies, though
involving her in imperial politics in some degree, belong to
older colonialism; she takes no part in the new expansion.

Russia, the only active expansionist country of the north,
stands alone in the character of her imperial growth, which
differs from other imperialism in that it has been princi-
pally Asiatic in its achievements and has proceeded, by
direct extension of imperial boundaries, partaking to a
larger extent than in the other cases of a regular colonial
policy of settlement for purposes of agriculture and industry.

The recent entrance of the powerful and progressive
nation of the United States of America upon imperialism
by the annexation of Hawaii and the taking over of the relics
of the ancient Spanish empire, not only adds a new formi-
dable competitor for trade and territory, but changes and
complicates the issues. As the focus of political attention
and activity shifts more to the Pacific states and the com-
mercial aspirations of America are more and more set
upon trade with the Pacific islands and the Asiatic coast,
the same forces which are driving European states along
the path of territorial expansion seem likely to act upon the
United States, leading her to a* virtual abandonment of
the principle of American isolation which has hitherto domi-
nated her policy.

Italian

colonization.

Russia.

The United
States.

622

Readings in EiLvopean History

A. Refer-
ences.

B. Addi-
tional read-
ing in
English.

Science.

Modern

industry.

Socialism.

Government
and politics.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Democracy and Reform in England : Seignobos, Political History
of Europe since 1814, pp. lo-ioi.

Socialism in Europe : Seignobos, pp. 718-745.

The Hague Peace Conference : Phillips, Modern Europe, pp. 526-
527, 544-546.

The Partition of Africa: Phillips, pp. 538-544.

Europe and Asia : Phillips, pp. 535-538.

There are three scholarly and yet popular works on the striking sci-
entific achievements in the nineteenth century: Wallace, The Wonder-
ful Century, 1898; Williams, Story of Nineteenth Century Science,
1900; and The Progress of the Century, 1901. The last contains chap-
ters on literature and religion as well.

There is no history of the industrial revolution in Europe as a whole.
Gibbins, Econo7iiic and Industrial Progress of the Cesitury, 1903, is a
popular outline. Cochrane, Modem Eidustrial Progress, 1904: a pop-
ular description of some of the most striking mechanical inventions of
the last century. The best account of English economic history for the
first half of the century is to be found in Cunningham, Growth of Eng-
lish Industry atid Cotnmerce, edition of 1903, Vol. II, Part II.

Marshall, Principles of Economics, 1905, Book IV, Chapters VIII-
XIII: contains an excellent study of modern industrial organization.
McVey, Modern Industrialism, 1905, devotes considerable attention to
Great Britain and Germany.

Webb, Problems of Modern Industry, 1898, and Adams and Sum-
ner, Labor Problems, 1905, are valuable studies of conditions of labor.
Ingram, A History of Political Ecosiomy, 1888, Chapters V-VIII :
a convenient summary of the theories of the chief modern economists.

For the history of socialism in Europe : Ely, Fre77ch and German
Socialistn in Modern Tunes, 1898; Webb, Socialism in England, 1901;
Sombart, Socialism and the Social Movement ut the Ninetea7th Century,
1898.

Lowell, Govemtnents and Parties in Continental Europe, 2 vols.,
1900 : a study of the governmental organizations and the political parties
in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. For England : Courtney,
The Working Constitution of the United Kingdom, 1904; also Rose,
Rise of Democracy, 1897.

Europe of To-day 623

Translations of the constitutions of France, Prussia, Italy, and Belgium
are published as supplements to the “Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science,” 1892-1896. The constitutions of the
German empire and Switzerland are to be found in the Wharton School
Series (University of Pennsylvania). These are reproduced in Larned,
History for Ready Reference, Vol. I, pp. 538

The Statesman' s Yearbook, annually since 1865, is a veritable mine of
information on the governments, statistics, and industries of all the coun-
tries of the world. Brief but useful bibliographies are included.

Reinsch, World Politics at the End of the Nineteenth Century, 1900 :
a suggestive and valuable work on the forces underlying imperialism,
the Chinese question, and the reflex influence of Eastern developments
on Western politics. By the same. Colonial Government, 1902: an
analysis of the economic forces in imperialism and a discussion of the
methods of colonial government ; useful general and topical bibliogra-
phies are given. Hobson, hnperialis7n : a Study, 1902: an indictment
of British imperial policy on economic grounds. Skrine, The Expa7i-
sion of Russia, i8ip-igoo, 1903 : devotes more attention to internal poli-
tics than the title implies. Rambaud, The Expa7tsio7i of Russia, 1904 :
brief and readable account of Russian advance in Europe and Asia.
Keltie, Partition of Africa, 1895 • ^ detailed history of the operations
of European powers in Africa. Douglas, Europe a7id the Far East,
1904 : a full account of the relations between Europe and China, Korea,
and Japan.

Foster, Arbitratio7i a7id The Hague Court, 1904 : a brief account of
the present position of international arbitration.

For the history of modern science there are two good general works :
Muller, Geschichte der orga7tische7i Naturwisse7ischafte7t hn 7ieu7izeh7tte7i
Jahrhundert, 1902, and Gunther, Geschichte der anorga7iische7i Natur-
wissenschaften im neu7izehnten Jahrhu7idert, 1901. In English we have
Williams, A History of Science, 6 vols. A succinct review of the scien-
tific advance is published each year in “ The Annual Register.”

From the vast range of works describing economic conditions the
following may be selected: Webb, The History of Trade Unionism,
1901 ; Hutchins and Harrison, History of Factory Legislation, 1903;
both relating to England. A valuable summary of European labor legis-
lation is to be found in the “ Report of the Industrial Commission,”
Vol. XVI, 1901. SOMBART, Die deutsche Volkswirtschaft im neunzeh7tten
fahrhundert, 1903 ; Levasseur, Histoire des classes ouvribres et de

Translations
of consti-
tutions.

Imperialism.

International

arbitration.

C. Materials
for advanced
study.

Economic

conditions.

624

Readings m Eui'opean History

PolLtical and
constitutional
matters.

Imperialism.

Vindiistrie en France de iy8g a i8yo, 2 vols., 2d ed., 1903-1904 ; Rae,
Contemporary Socialism, 1901 ; Marx, Das Kapital, 3 vols. ; Vol. I trans-
lated by Moore and Aveling, London, 1887, and subsequent editions.
A continuation of the translation is announced. This is a very remark-
able work, the text-book of most socialistic leaders. The most important
encyclopaedias dealing with economic matters are : Palgrave, Diction-
ary of Political Econo7ny, 3 vols., 1894-1899, and Conrad, Handwoi'ter-
buch der Staatswissetischaften, 7 vols., 1898-1901.

Scholarly treatises on the constitutions of the European states are to
be found in Marquardsen, Haitdbuch des offejitlichenRechts, 1883 sqq., —
a series of volumes by specialists; Burgess, Political Science and Com-
parative Constitutional Law, 2 vols., 1900,- — -a remarkable comparative
study of the constitutions of France, Great Britain, Germany, and the
United States. For the administrative organization, see Goodnow,
Comparative Administrative Law, 2 vols., 1902. The leading authority
for England is Anson, Law and Custo7n of the Co7istitutio7i, 2 vols.,
1892; but compare Bagehot, The E7iglish Constitutio7i (admirably
written), and Dicey’s suggestive Law of the Co7istitictio7i, which has a
chapter on the contrast between the spirit of the English and of the
French government. Bodley, Fra7ice, 2 vols., 1898; Robinson, The
Ger77ia7t Bwidesrath, Philadelphia, 1891 ; Leroy-Beaulieu, The E7npire
of the Tsars a7id the Russia7is, 3 vols., 1898. For the important matter
of international arbitration, see Holds, The Peace Confere7tce at The
LLague, 1900.

A useful but not exhaustive bibliography of materials on imperialism
will be found in Griffin, List of Books relatmg to the Theory of Col oni-
zatio7i, Gover7i77ie7it of Depe7ide7icies, Protectorates, a7td Related Topics,
1900. Leroy-Beaulieu, De la colo7iisatio7t chez les peuples 77ioder77es,
1898 : best account in moderate compass of recent European coloniza-
tion. The British E77ipire Series, 1899-1902, 5 vols.: a collection of lec-
tures by specialists describing British possessions. Official materials are
contained in the British Parlia77ientary Papers (“ Blue books ”). Ram-
BAUD, La Fra7tce colo7tiale, 1895 • historical and descriptive. Arnaud
and M^:ray, Les Colonies franqaises, 1900 : recent concise account.
A7i77uaire colonial, since 1888 : official French publication. PIassert,
Deutschla7zds Kolonie7i, 1898: brief historical and descriptive work.
Extensive materials are incorporated in the official “ WeissbilcherP
Krausse, The Far East: its Llistory a7id its Questio7is, 1900: brief
account of recent Oriental affairs, with an appendix of important docu-
ments and bibliography of authorities. Skrine and Ross, The Heart
of Asia, 1899: valuable for Russian Turkestan and central Asian
territories.

INDEX

This Index should be supplemented by the analytical Table of Contents at
the opening of this volume.

Academy, French, 271 sq.

Act of Succession, 141.

Act of Supremacy, 141 sq.

Address to the German Nobility,
Luther’s, 74 sqq.

Alexander VI, Pope, ii sq.

Alva, 175.

America, emigration to, 225 sqq.
American colonies, revolt of, from
English, 353 sqq.

American Revolution, French in-
tervention in, 370 sqq.

Aminadab Blower, a satire, 232 sq.
Ancien Regime, 360 sqq.

An 7nein Volk" (1813), 522
Anne Boleyn, 141.

Anne of Brittany, 12, 17.
Antipodes, 601, note.

“ Apology ” of William the Silent,
177 sqq.

Armada, 189 sqq.

Augsburg Confession, \o%sqq.\
Religious Peace of, wq^sqq.
Austerlitz, battle of, 496 sqq.
Austro-Prussian War, ^Zosqq.

Babylonish Captivity of the Church,
Luther’s, 81 sq., 89.

Bacon, Francis, scientific views of,
601 sqq.

Bacteria, beneficent, 613^5^.

Ban, 33, 87 sq.

Bayard, the Good Chevalier, 1 5 sqq.
Belgium, 557 sq.

Beresina, crossing of, 515 sqq.
Berlin Decree, 503 jyy.

Bismarck, 580 sqq.

“ Black Hole ” of Calcutta, 339 sqq.
Blockade, the continental, 503^-^^.
Bohemia, 202 sq.

Bordeaux address, Napoleon Ill’s,

Bossuet, views of, 272 sqq.

Boulogne, encampment at, 494 sqq.

Bourrienne, 472 sqq.

Brandenburg, elector of, assumes
royal title, 318

Brant, Sebastian, 37, 50.

Brumaire, 478 sqq.

Brunswick, duke of, proclamation
of, 443/5’?-

Burnet, bishop, account of, of Peter
the Great, 303 sq.

C^sAR Borgia, ii sq.

Cahiers, of the Estates General,

397 sqq-

Cajetan, 69.

Calvin, 122 sqq.] address of, to
Francis I, 123 system of

church government of, 130^^^.

Campo-Formio, Treaty of, 472 sqq.

Capito, letter of, to Luther,
62 sqq.

Cardinals, attacked by Martin
Luther, 79 sq.

Carlsbad Resolutions, 547 sqq.

Carlstadt, loi.

Catechism, imperial, 509 sq. ; of
Trent, 160, 195.

Catherine, Queen, iqfisqq.

Catholic Reformation, the, 1 56 sqq.

Censorship of the press, 88.

Charles Albert, 569.

Charles I of England, 221 sqq.\ per-
sonal government of, 227 sqq. ;
execution of, 241 sqq.

Charles II, recall of, 250 sqq.] char-
acter of, 253 j-y.; religious ques-
tions under, 2^6 sqq.

626

Readings in European History

Charles V, emperor, attitude
toward Luther, 83 sqq. ; abdi-
cation of, 165 sqq.

Charles VIII, expedition of, into
Italy, I sqq.

Charter, French, of 1814, 538 jyy.

Church and State, q$sqq., in sq.,
1 16.

Civil constitution of the clergy,
423 sqq.

Civil war in England, 239 sq.

Clarendon, opinion of, on Crom-
well, 248 sqq.

Clergy, nonjuring, 441 sq.

Clive, 339, 341 sq.

Colbert and his work, 277 sqq.

Colet, 135 jy.

Coligny, murder of, 180 sq.

Colo'nies, European, 620 sqq.

Commines, i sq.

Commonwealth in England, 245
sqq.

Confederation of the Rhine, 499
sqq.

Confession, 156^^.

Confessional letters, 56.

Consistory, 133.

Convention, the French, opening
debate in, 446 sqq. ; proclama-
tion of (Dec. 1792), 449

Cromwell, 245 sqq. ; letter of, to
the Great Elector, 315 ry- ; Clar-
endon’s estimate of, 248 sqq.

Crotus Rubeanus, 47.

Darwin, critics of, 605 sq.

Declaration of Right, 260 sqq.

Declaration of the Rights of Man,
409 sqq.

Deism, 384 sqq.

Desmoulins, Camille, 454 sqq.

Diet, German, 33 sq.

Dissenters, 2^6 sqq.

Divine right of kings, 2ig sq.-, Bos-
suet’s views of, 272 sqq.

Dutch colonies, 334 sq.

East India Company, English,

333-

Eck, 64.

Edward VI, Protestantism under,
146 sqq.

Egyptian expedition of Bonaparte,

473 m-

Etkon Basilike, 267.

Elders, in Presbyterian Church,

133

Elizabeth, Queen, 186 sqq., 191 sqq.

Elizabeth, wife of the “ Winter
King,” 20^ sq.

Emigres, 432, 438 sqq.

Emile, Rousseau’s, 383.

Ems telegram, 589 sq.

England, expansion of, 331 sqq.

Erasmus, 39Jyy., 61; New Testa-
ment of, 49 ; attitude of, toward
Luther, 89 sq. ; visit of, to Eng-
land, 135.

Erfurt programme, 619.

Estates General, opening of, 400
sqq., 402 sqq.

Evelyn, diary of, 255 sq.

Excommunication in Presbyterian
Church, 132 jy.

Fared, 129^^.

Ferdinand of Aragon, 9 sq.

Feudal dues in France, 378; abo-
lition of, 404 sqq.

“Fevers, the,” of Hutten, 69 jy.

Fisher, execution of, 142.

Florence, 6 sq.

Fontainebleau, Treaty of, 525.

France, wars of religion in, 179
sqq.-, under Louis XIV, 268 sqq.-,
Ancien Regime in, 360 sqq. ; Rev-
olution in, 397 sqq. ; first republic,
428 sqq.-, restoration in, 533 sqq.-,
second republic and empire,
559 jyy.; third republic, 592 jy.

Francis I of France, 18 sqq.

Francis II, emperor, abdication of,
501 sqq.

Franco-Prussian War, 588 j-yy.

Frankfort parliament, 570 sqq.

Frederick II, the Great, 319 jyy.,
322 sqq.

Frederick William I, 319 jyy.

Frederick William IV of Prussia,
570 jy.

Free towns, German, 32, 34.

French Academy, 271 sq.

French Revolution, eve of, 360
sqq., 397 sqq.

hidex 627

Garibaldi, msqq.

Geneva, reformation in, 129 sqq.

George III, 355 sq.

German Act of Confederation,

543 m-

German empire, proclamation of,

594 ^q-

German literature, views of Fred-
erick the Great on, 326 sq.

Germany, a Venetian ambassa-
dor’s account of, 31 sqq.\ before
the Protestant revolt, 31 sqq.

“ Good Works,” Luther on, 66 sqq.

Gordon, Alexander, 306 sqq.

Gotha, programme, 617 sqq.

Grand Remonstrance, 235 sqq.

Great Elector, 3 1 5 jy.

Greek proclamation of independ-
ence, 55 5

Gregorian calendar, 261, note.

Guicciardini, 24 sqq.

Guilds in France, abolition of, by
Turgot, 389 sq.

Gustavus Adolphus, 205 sqq.

Hawkins, letter of, about the
Armada, 189 sqq.

Henry VIII, 135, 137 sq.\ church
reforms of, 140 sqq., 144

Henry IV of France, 183.

Hierarchy, 159.

High Commission, Court of,
238.

Hochstraten, 46, 48 sq., 64.

Holy Roman Empire, dissolution
of, 497 sqq.

Huguenots, 183 sqq. ; received in
Prussia, 316 sqq.

Hunting rights in France, 365,

405-

Hutten, Ulrich von, 47, 68 sqq. ;
address of, to elector of Saxony,
72 sq.

Images, abolished in England,

147 sq.

Imperialism, 620 sqq.

Indelible characters, 76 sq.

India, 333 sqq.\ before English con-
quest, 336 sqq.

Indulgences, 41 sq., 53 sqq.

Industrial revolution, 608 sqq.

Institutes of the Christian Religion,
Calvin’s, 123, 1 26 sqq.
Intolerance of Protestants, 129 sq.,

134.

Italy, attitude of, toward foreign
invaders, 2 sqq., 14 sq.; in 1848-
1849, 567 sqq.; unification of,

572 sqq.

Ivan the Terrible, 301 sq.

Jacobin Club, 435 sqq.

James I, policy of, 201 sqq., opin-
ions of, 218 sqq.

James II, 259 sqq.

Jefferson, Thomas, impressions of,
of France, 379 sq.

Jehangir, 333 sq.

Jesuits, 161 sqq., 200 sq., 236; in
America, 345 sqq.

Joliet, 345, 350.

Knights, German, 36.
Koniggratz, battle of, 582 sq.

Lactantius, 601, note.

Lafayette, 431 sq.

Las Cases, 468 sqq., 527 sqq.
Legislative Assembly, the French,

438 m-

Leipzig, disputation at, 64 sq. ;

battle of, 523 sqq.

Letters of Obscure Men, 46 sqq.
Lettres de cachet, 361 sqq., 375,
399-

Long Parliament, 233 sqq., 246 sqq.
Lord’s Supper, 146 sq.

Louis XII, 12 sq., 17 sq.

Louis XIV, 268 sqq. ; court of,
283 sqq. ; character of, 285 sqq.
Louis XVI, 366 sqq., 428 sqq., 438
sq., 450 sq.

Louis XVIII, 536 sq.

Louis Philippe, 542 • deposition of,

559

Loyal Servitor, the, 15 sqq.
Loyola, 161.

Ludovico il Moro, 2 sq.

Luneville, Treaty of, 482 sqq.
Luther, theses of, 57 sqq.; opin-
ions of, expressed at Leipzig,
64 sq.; on “good works,” 66 sqq.;
address of, to the German

628

Readings in Eiti'opean History

nobility, 74 sqq.\ denounced by
the Edict of Worms, 84 sqq.\ at-
tack of, on the peasants, 106 sqq.

Machiavelli, The Prince oi,()sqq.

Magdeburg, destruction of, in 1631,
2\\ sqq.

Mallet du Pan, 433 sq.

Marat, 431 sq.

Marengo, 480 sqq.

Marie Antoinette, 366 sqq.

Maria Theresa, 327, 366, 368 sq.

Marignano, campaign of, 19 sqq.

Marino Sanuto, diaries of, 29 sq.

Marquette, 345 sqq.

Mary of England, 149 sqq.-, reli-
gious policy of, 151 sq.

Mary, Queen of Scots, 186 sqq.

Maximilian I, 31.

Mediaeval science, 599 sqq.

Medici, 6 sq.

Melville, Sir James, 186.

Metternich, sqq., 564 sq.

Milan, 2, 23, 567 sqq.

Milan Decree, 506 sq.

Mirabeau, 400 sq., 404, 412 sqq.

Mississippi, discovery of, 345 sqq.

Mogul, Great, 333 sq., 338 sq.

Monasteries, dissolution of, 144 sqq.

Monastic vows, 109 sq.

Monks, satirized by Erasmus, 45 jy.

More, Sir Thomas, 39 sq., 135 sq.,
execution of, 142 sqq.

Nantes, Edict of, 183 sqq.-, revo-
cation of, 287 sqq. ; opinion of
Saint-Simon on, 291 sq.-, results
of, 316 sqq.

Naples, 3 sq.

Napoleon Bonaparte, 465 sqq.,
486 sqq., 490 sqq.

Napoleon III, 562 sqq.-, interven-
tion of, in Italy, 572 ; defeat of,
at Sedan, 590 sqq.

National Assembly, address of,
Feb. 1790, 417 sqq., 433 sqq.-.
See also Estates General.

Necker, 390 sqq.

Netherlands, revolt of, 17 1 sqq.

New England, settlement of, 225
sq., 351 J-y.

North German federation, 586 jyy.

Novii7n Orgajtum, 601.

Old Cordelier, The, 454 sqq.
Ortuin Gratius, 46.

Palais Royal, 402.

Papal states reunited to France,

513-

Paris, 374 sq.

Parliament, English, and the Stu-
arts, 219 sqq.

Peasant War in Germany, 94 sqq.
Penn, William, 352 sq.

Pepys, diary of, 255.

Peter the Great, 302 sqq.

Petition of Right, 221 sqq., 237.
Philip II, 150, 168 jyy.; letter of,
to his daughters, 170 sq.
Philosophical Dictionary of Vol-
taire, 380 sq.

Pillnitz, Declaration of, 432 sq.
Pitt, 354 sq.

Placards, 173 sq.

Plassey, battle of, 341 sqq.
Poe7iitentia, 58, and note.

Poland, First Partition of, 327 sq.
Political parties, 615 sqq.

Pope, power of, attacked by Luther,

75-

Praise of Folly, Erasmus, 39 sqq.
Prayer Book, 147.

Predestination, 126 sqq.
Presbyterianism, 130 sqq., 218 sq.
Prince, The, of Machiavelli, 9 sqq.
Provence, count of, 439, 450 sq.
Prussia, 315 sqq., ^20 sqq., 580 jyy.
Puritans, 227 sqq.

Quakers, 258 sq.

Radetzky, 567 sqq.

Regicides, execution of, 255 sq.
Relics, 158.

Remusat, Madame de, 476, 486
sqq.

Restoration, in England, 250 sqq.
Reuchlin, 46 sq.

Revilers, Act against, 146 sq.
Revolution of 1848, 559 sqq.
Richelieu, policy of, 268 sqq.
Robespierre, 453, note.

Roman law, in Germany, 98.
Rothenburg, revolt of the peasants
at, 100 sqq.

Rousseau, 383 sq.

Index 629

“ Rump ” Parliamen t dispersed, 247 .

Russia, rise of, 301 sqq.\ reforms of
Peter the Great, 310 sqq.

Russian campaign, 514

Sacraments, 159; rejected by
Luther, 81.

St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 179
sqq., 187.

St. Helena, Napoleon on, 527 sqq.

Saint-Just, ideas of, 452 sq.

St. Petersburg, founding of, 309 sq.

Saints, adoration of, 41 sq., 157 jy.

Saint-Simon, opinions of, 285 sqq.,
291 sqq., 295 sqq.

Savonarola, 7 sq.

Scholastic theologians, 43 sq.

Science, development of, 599 sqq. ;
applied, 608 sqq.

Sedan, battle of, 590 sqq.

Segur, 371 sqq.

Serfdom in Germany, 96, 99 sq.-,
abolition of, in Prussia, 520 sqq.

Seven Years’ War, 322 sqq..-

Sevigne, Madame de, 283 sq.,
291.

Ship of Fools, The, 37 sqq.

Sieyes, 403.

Sobieski, 312 sqq.

Social Contract, The, Rousseau’s,
384 sqq.

Social democracy, 615 sqq.

Socialism, 617 sqq.

Society of Jesus, see Jesuits.

Spain, description of by Guicciar-
dini, 24 sqq.-, Napoleon’s reforms
in, 510 sqq.

Spanish Succession, the. War of,
293 sqq.

Sports, Declaration of, 228 sqq.

Stael, Madame de, 360 sqq.

Star Chamber, Court of, 238.

Streltsi, 304 sqq.

Stuarts, restoration of, 253 sqq.

Supremacy, Act of, 141 sq.

Surgery, modern, 614.

Swiss at Marignano, 19 sqq.

Sybel, 586.

Talleyrand, 533 sqq.

Temple, Sir William, on France,
280 sqq.

Terror, reign of, 452 sqq.

Theses, ninety-five, of Martin Lu-
ther, 57 sqq.

Thirty Years’ War, 200 sqq.

Tithes, 96 ; abolition of, in France,
406.

Torcy, marquis of, 293 sqq.

Transportation, modern, 610 sqq.

Transubstantiation, 82 sq.

Treasury of the Church, 56, 60.

Trent, catechism of, 160, 195;
Council of, 156 sqq.

Trianon, 401.

Troppau, circular note of, 552 sqq.

Turgot, 368, 386 sqq.

Turks besiege Vienna, 312 sqq.

'* Twelve Articles ” of the peasants,
94 sqq.-, Luther’s comments on,
99 ^q-

Uniformity, Act of, 256 sq.

Vadiscus, 70 sq.

Varennes, flight to, 428 sqq.

Venetia, 567 sqq.

Venetian ambassadors, relations
of, 30.

Venice, republic of, 3 sq., 474, 484.

Versailles, 373 sq.

Victor Emmanuel, 569, 574 sq.,
577 sq.

Vienna, besieged by Turks, 312
sqq.-. Congress of, S'X'Xsqq.-, revolt
of, in 1848, 565 sqq.

Voltaire, 380 sqq.

Wallenstein, 205 sqq.

War of Liberation, 518 sqq.

Westminster Confession, 126, note,
128.

Westphalia, Treaty of, 213 sqq.-
pope’s condemnation of, 2\\sqq.

William I of Prussia, 580 sqq.

William the Silent, 174 sqq.

“ Winter King,” 204 sq.

Wolsey, 138 sqq.

Worms, Edict of, 83 sqq.

Young, Arthur, Travels of, 365,
373 sqq., 402 sqq.

ZOLLVEREIN, 550 sq.

Zurich, disputation at, 118 sqq.

Zwingli, 1 18 sqq.

-’ll

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Date Due

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